Three wins in five closes the gap at the bottom
The under-23s looked certainties to finish bottom of the Professional Development League in our inaugural season but yesterday’s win against QPR followed those against Nottingham Forest and Charlton which have seen us close the gap to four points.
Crewe were the team next to bottom but they too have picked up points recently and that’s seen Barnsley drop into the position below us. While we were losing against Sheffield Wednesday and beating QPR in the last week, they surprisingly drew 0-0 against the south group leaders Crystal Palace which means we now sit four points behind them with a game in hand and a trip to Oakwell still to come.
It’s been a much changed Burnley team in recent weeks. Players such as Arlen Birch and Brad Jackson seem to have dropped out of the reckoning and there have been so many trialists recently it has been a case of turning to Google ahead of games to determine where the players are from.
At the top end of the league, Sheffield Wednesday followed up their win against us with victory over Coventry yesterday afternoon. At that point they had closed the gap on leaders Bolton to one point but Bolton beat Millwall last night to go back to four points clear and with a game in hand.
It’s likely that the winners will come from those two now with third place Forest some eight points behind Bolton.
In the south, despite dropping points at Barnsley, Crystal Palace look more than likely winners. They currently sit nine points ahead of both Ipswich and Charlton with the former having a game in hand on the leaders.
There are just seven games in the next week and all but one of them are re-arranged games. That includes our trip to Sheffield United on Good Friday afternoon.
The player featured this week is left-back Ali Koiki who has been a regular in the team this season.
The League Tables are updated as results are confirmed and can be found with our Fixtures and Results within U23/U18 Stats on the top menu.
Last week’s results, this week’s fixtures, the leading goalscorers, our scorers and the current league tables are all below.
THIS WEEK’S RESULTS
Thursday 22nd March
Birmingham 0 Ipswich 1
Colchester 0 Bristol City 3
Friday 23rd March
Burnley 0 Sheffield Wednesday 1
Barnsley 0 Crystal Palace 0
Leeds 3 Cardiff 0
Nottingham Forest 1 Charlton 0
Monday 26th March
Bolton 1 Millwall 0
Burnley 3 QPR 1
Crewe 0 Watford 0
Hull 2 Bristol City 1
Sheffield Wednesday 2 Coventry 1
THIS WEEK’S FIXTURES
Tuesday 27th March
Charlton v Crystal Palace
Wednesday 28th March
Nottingham Forest v Crewe
Thursday 29th March
Colchester v Cardiff
Watford v Ipswich
Friday 30th March
Sheffield United v Burnley
Sheffield Wednesday v Barnsley
Monday 2nd April
Sheffield United v Colchester
LEADING GOALSCORERS
19: Connor Hall (Bolton)
15: Jordan Ponticelli (Coventry)
13: Tyler Smith (Sheffield United)
12: Aramide Oteh (QPR), Lewis Reilly (Crewe)
11: Victor Adeboyejo (Barnsley), Michael Folivi (Watford), Levi Lumeka (Crystal Palace)
10: Virgil Gomis (Nottingham Forest), Mark Harris (Cardiff), Dion Pereira (Watford), Aaron Smith (Nottingham Forest)
BURNLEY’S GOALSCORERS (League & Cups)
5: Dwight McNeil
4: Tinashe Chakwana
3: Tunde Bayode, Ntumba Massanka, Khius Metz, Jamie Thomas, Nahki Wells
2: Dan Agyei, Rahis Nabi, Christian N’Guessan
1: James Clarke, Harry Flowers, Fredrik Ulvestad, Oliver Younger
CURRENT LEAGUE TABLES
| Team | pld | w | d | l | f | a | pts |
| Bolton Wanderers | 25 | 15 | 2 | 8 | 46 | 34 | 47 |
| Sheffield Wednesday | 26 | 12 | 7 | 7 | 42 | 35 | 43 |
| Nottingham Forest | 24 | 10 | 9 | 5 | 49 | 44 | 39 |
| Hull City | 27 | 12 | 3 | 12 | 42 | 51 | 39 |
| Leeds | 27 | 11 | 5 | 11 | 44 | 43 | 38 |
| Sheffield United | 24 | 11 | 2 | 11 | 43 | 37 | 35 |
| Huddersfield Town | 26 | 10 | 5 | 11 | 42 | 43 | 35 |
| Birmingham City | 24 | 7 | 7 | 10 | 37 | 37 | 28 |
| Crewe Alexandra | 23 | 8 | 4 | 11 | 31 | 39 | 28 |
| Barnsley | 24 | 7 | 5 | 12 | 37 | 43 | 26 |
| Burnley | 23 | 6 | 4 | 13 | 24 | 48 | 22 |
| Team | pld | w | d | l | f | a | pts |
| Crystal Palace | 24 | 15 | 2 | 7 | 53 | 26 | 47 |
| Ipswich Town | 23 | 11 | 5 | 7 | 49 | 33 | 38 |
| Charlton Athletic | 24 | 11 | 5 | 8 | 42 | 34 | 38 |
| Coventry City | 24 | 10 | 5 | 10 | 50 | 52 | 35 |
| Queens Park Rangers | 24 | 10 | 4 | 10 | 46 | 48 | 34 |
| Cardiff City | 23 | 9 | 4 | 10 | 33 | 40 | 31 |
| Millwall | 26 | 7 | 10 | 9 | 23 | 35 | 31 |
| Watford | 22 | 8 | 5 | 9 | 41 | 33 | 29 |
| Colchester United | 21 | 7 | 6 | 8 | 30 | 37 | 27 |
| Bristol City | 25 | 4 | 9 | 12 | 30 | 42 | 21 |
Share this page :