Two hat tricks in U23 league opening week
The U18 Professional Development League’s opening results went in favour of the teams in the Southern Group and while not as exaggerated it was the same story when the under-23 league kicked off this week.
Of the ten games played, seven were won from the teams in the south with the other three going the way of three South Yorkshire Clubs who were flying the flag for the North Group.
Both Sheffield clubs recorded 2-1 away wins. United won at Bristol City while Wednesday were winners at Cardiff. Barnsley were the other Yorkshire winners. They too won 2-1 away from home, their victory coming at Charlton.
Other than that it was south all the way and that included Crystal Palace’s 2-0 win against us in what was our first ever game in this league as an inexperienced Burnley side came up against the likes of Damien Delaney, Sullay Kaikai , Yohan Cabaye and James McArthur during the game played at Palace’s training ground. It was a young Burnley side which included recent signing from Rahis Nabi, a recent signing from West Brom (pictured).
The big winners though were Millwall and QPR who both scored four goals with players claiming hat tricks. Millwall beat Huddersfield 3-0 with Lewis White scoring three and there were three goals for QPR’s Eberechi Eze in a 4-1 win against Hull.
Best comeback of the week came from Ipswich. They trailed 2-0 at home to Crewe but came back to win the game 3-2.
In the other three games, there were wins for Colchester, Coventry and Watford against Birmingham, Bolton and Leeds respectively.
As is the case with the under-18 league, the tables have been updated although all the games so far have been North v South and that will be the case again over the next week with the fixtures spread from Friday through to next Tuesday.
The League Tables and our Fixtures and Results are both within U23/U18 Stats which can be found on the top menu.
The season’s first results and the next set of fixtures are shown below and it is intended to keep a list of the leading scorers this season.
THIS WEEK’S RESULTS
Monday 14th August
Bristol City 1 Sheffield United 2
Cardiff 1 Sheffield Wednesday 2
Charlton 1 Barnsley 2
Colchester 2 Birmingham 1
Coventry 1 Bolton 0
Crystal Palace 2 Burnley 0
Ipswich 3 Crewe 2
Millwall 4 Huddersfield 0
QPR 4 Hull 1
Watford 2 Leeds 0
NEXT WEEK’S FIXTURES
Friday 18th August
Barnsley v Colchester
Birmingham v Coventry
Monday 21st August
Bolton v Crystal Palace
Burnley v Ipswich
Crewe v Millwall
Huddersfield v QPR
Hull v Watford
Sheffield United v Cardiff
Sheffield Wednesday v Charlton
Tuesday 22nd August
Nottingham Forest v Bristol City
LEADING GOALSCORERS
3: Eberechi Eze (QPR), Lewis White (Millwall)
2: Tommy O’Sullivan (Colchester)
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