Steel city pair lead the way
Following this week’s under-23 games in the Professional Development League, it is the two Sheffield clubs who are leading the way with both securing second wins to go clear in the North Group while four clubs – Watford, Coventry, QPR and Crystal Palace – lead the South Group with maximum points.
Sheffield United had won at Bristol City in their first game while Wednesday had also won away at Cardiff. Both played at home for the first time this week with both winning again. This time it was United’s turn to beat Cardiff with Wednesday winning against Charlton.
This league is, right now, the same as the under-18 league in that no two teams from the same group have met and it’s our southern counterparts who are currently doing best with the four mentioned above all having won both games.
Palace followed up their win against us with victory at Bolton while Coventry, one of just two League Two clubs in the league, had a good day at Birmingham, winning 5-2. QPR won at Huddersfield but the biggest winners in week two were Watford who hammered Hull 6-0 to add to their 2-0 home win against Leeds in the previous week.
It was good to see the Clarets get off the mark with a first win, although the word see is probably inappropriate given the club opted to play the game behind closed doors.
The game was played against a very young Ipswich side and coach Michael Duff said: “It was a positive game for us. They were quite young but you can only beat what is in front of you. The first 45 minutes in particular, we moved the ball really well and created numerous opportunities. We could have been out of sight but they grew into it and it got a little bit squeaky at times.”
As we reported previously, Burnley’s first goals in this league were scored by Dan Agyei and Olatunde Bayode (pictured) and they will be looking to add more goals next Tuesday evening when we travel to Bristol City for a game that will be played at Ashton Gate.
You can find the League Tables and our Fixtures & Results within U23/U18 Stats on the top menu.
The results are below along with next week’s fixtures, when it is again North v South, and the current leading goalscorers.
THIS WEEK’S RESULTS
Friday 18th August
Barnsley 2 Colchester 2
Birmingham 2 Coventry 5
Monday 21st August
Bolton 0 Crystal Palace 2
Burnley 2 Ipswich 0
Crewe 3 Millwall 0
Huddersfield 1 QPR 2
Hull 0 Watford 6
Sheffield United 3 Cardiff 0
Sheffield Wednesday 3 Charlton 1
Tuesday 22nd August
Nottingham Forest 2 Bristol City 1
NEXT WEEK’S FIXTURES
Friday 25th August
Cardiff v Crewe
Charlton v Huddersfield
Coventry v Leeds
QPR v Barnsley
Monday 28th August
Colchester v Hull
Tuesday 29th August
Bristol City v Burnley – 7 p.m. at Ashton Gate
Crystal Palace v Nottingham Forest
Ipswich v Sheffield United
Millwall v Sheffield Wednesday
Watford v Birmingham
LEADING GOALSCORERS
3: Eberechi Eze (QPR), Michael Folivi (Watford), Dion Pereira (Watford), Lewis White (Millwall)
2: Victor Adeboyjo (Barnsley), Owen Dale (Crewe), Jordan Hallam (Sheffield United), Lucas Joao (Sheffield Wednesday), Cory O’Keefe (Birmingham), Tommy O’Sullivan (Colchester), Jordan Ponticelli (Coventry), Lewis Reilly (Crewe), Kwame Thomas (Coventry)
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