South dominate first two weeks of youth league
Burnley suffered a second successive defeat to kick off the U18 Professional Development League; beaten 3-0 at home by Millwall on the opening Saturday, we suffered a 2-0 defeat at Bristol City to leave us goalless and pointless after two games and bottom of the north group.
Scoring goals in the opening period of the season seems to be a problem. Under-16 player Michael Mellon scored our only goal in four games in the CEE Cup, played in Prague, and two games without a goal since has come in the league.
Our team at Bristol City was: Harry Allen, Kane Patterson, Udoka Chima, Edon Pruti, Matty Rain, Ne-Jai Tucker (Rhys Fenlon 60), Ben Woods, Corey Brennan (Joel Connolly 78), Cricky Conn-Clarke, Joe McGlynn (Mitch George 68), Jayden Major. Subs not use: Lewis Thomas, Jake Rooney.
I think it is fair to say that the south group is dominating in these north v south games at the start of the season. There were no north group winners in week one so congratulations to Nottingham Forest who won 1-0 at Coventry two days ago to record the only win so far by a team from our group. It’s their only game thus far and it sees them top our group with three points while Crewe, with two draws, are the only side with two points.
While we currently sit bottom, and note that the other five teams with no points have all played just one game, we shouldn’t despair given we are only a point behind third place Sheffield United who have played twice and picked up just a draw, that coming at Crystal Palace last Friday.
It’s just the reverse in the south where every single team has got off the mark, even last season’s strugglers Colchester. They got off to the new season with a heavy defeat but, maybe surprisingly, won a point against Leeds two days ago.
Watford lead the league and, along with Charlton and Millwall, have six points from the opening two games. Cardiff and Colchester are the only teams in the south group without a win.
Things could change this coming week with the north group teams at home against those in the south, and ours is against Cardiff, one of those two teams without a win.
The player featured this week is goalkeeper Harry Allen.
All last week’s results and this week’s fixtures are shown below.
LAST WEEK’S RESULTS
Friday 16th August
Crystal Palace 0 Sheffield United 0
Saturday 17th August
Bristol City 2 Burnley 0
Cardiff 2 Crewe 2
Charlton 7 Hull 1
Colchester 1 Leeds 1
Coventry 0 Nottingham Forest 1
Ipswich 1 Sheffield Wednesday 0
Millwall 3 Wigan 2
QPR 4 Barnsley 3
Watford 4 Birmingham 0
THIS WEEK’S FIXTURES
Saturday 24th August
Barnsley v Watford
Bolton v Bristol City
Burnley v Cardiff
Crewe v Charlton
Hull v Colchester
Leeds v Coventry
Nottingham Forest v Crystal Palace
Sheffield United v Ipswich
Sheffield Wednesday v Millwall
Wigan v QPR
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