Under-23s back in a play-off place
Monday’s 2-0 home win against Watford has taken us back into second place in the Professional Development League, three points clear of third place Birmingham City who were without a game.
It’s going to be a close finish but with so few games left now it is looking increasingly likely that the top two, who will move into the play-offs alongside their south group counterparts, will come from the teams currently in the top three places.
Leeds should make it. They are now on 50 points with three more games to play. We have four games remaining but are down on 42 points while Birmingham are three points behind us with one extra game to play. They also currently hold a goal difference that is three better than ours.
While we were winning, there was no slip up from Leeds who were convincing winners against Charlton but in the south group leaders Ipswich did drop points, only drawing 2-2 last Friday at much improving Barnsley.
Ipswich, like Leeds, look certainties for the play-offs. Should either Coventry or Bristol City pick up maximum points from their remaining games it would leave Ipswich still only needing one win and one draw from their remaining four games to finish in the top two.
The likelihood is that Leeds and Ipswich will be there along with us or Birmingham and one of Crystal Palace, Coventry or Bristol City.
Whatever happens, it is a vast improvement on last season when we only escaped the bottom position with a win in the last game. We ended last season with 34 points from 30 games and have gone way past that with 42 points from 24 games this season.
Birmingham will play their game in hand this Saturday and there are a total of five games being played, three today, the Birmingham game and one next Tuesday.
Our next league game is not until a week on Monday at Ashton Gate against Bristol City but before then we can expect the Round of 16 games to have been played in the Premier League Cup. The Premier League are still to confirm any dates for those games which includes our home tie against Leicester.
The player featured this week is midfielder Christian N’Guessan. He’s been back in action again in the last few weeks having returned from ankle surgery, an injury sustained in a win against Bolton earlier in the season.
The League Tables are updated as results are confirmed and can be found with our Fixtures and Results in U23/U18 Stats on the top menu.
Last week’s results, this week’s fixtures, the league’s leading scorers, our goalscorers and the current league tables can all be found below.
LAST WEEK’S RESULTS
Friday 8th March
Barnsley 2 Ipswich 2
Sheffield Wednesday 5 Crystal Palace 1
Monday 11th March
Burnley 2 Watford 0
Hull 0 Cardiff 1
Leeds 4 Charlton 0
Nottingham Forest 2 Colchester 2
Sheffield United v Coventry – match postponed, waterlogged pitch
NEXT WEEK’S FIXTURES
Wednesday 13th March
Barnsley v Sheffield Wednesday
Bolton v QPR
Crewe v Bristol City
Saturday 16th March
Birmingham v Millwall
Tuesday 19th March
Ipswich v Watford
LEADING GOALSCORERS
15: Dan Agyei (Burnley)
11: Tinashe Chakwana (Burnley), Aramide Oteh (PR)
10: Michael Folivi (Watford)
9: Oli Finney (Crewe), Kian Flanagan (Crystal Palace), Ben Folami (Ipswich), Keane Lewis -Potter (Hull), Kyle McFarlane (Birmingham)
BURNLEY’S GOALSCORERS (LEAGUE & CUPS)
21: Dan Agyei
14: Tinashe Chakwana
5: Dwight McNeil
4: Tunde Bayode, Marley Blair, Rob Harker, Lewis Richardson
3: Jordan Cropper, Bobby Thomas
2: Josh Benson, Ali Koiki, own goals
1: Michael Fowler, Mark Howarth, Christian N’Guessan, Ne-Jai Tucker, Matěj Vydra, Nahki Wells, Oliver Younger
CURRENT LEAGUE TABLES
| Team | pld | w | d | l | f | a | pts |
| Leeds | 25 | 15 | 5 | 5 | 52 | 29 | 50 |
| Burnley | 24 | 13 | 3 | 8 | 55 | 40 | 42 |
| Birmingham City | 23 | 11 | 6 | 6 | 37 | 19 | 39 |
| Bolton Wanderers | 24 | 11 | 3 | 10 | 34 | 38 | 36 |
| Crewe Alexandra | 24 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 37 | 36 | 35 |
| Barnsley | 24 | 9 | 6 | 9 | 32 | 42 | 33 |
| Nottingham Forest | 23 | 8 | 7 | 8 | 44 | 36 | 31 |
| Sheffield Wednesday | 23 | 9 | 4 | 10 | 30 | 42 | 31 |
| Sheffield United | 23 | 8 | 6 | 9 | 32 | 36 | 30 |
| Hull City | 23 | 4 | 5 | 14 | 26 | 48 | 17 |
| Team | pld | w | d | l | f | a | pts |
| Ipswich Town | 24 | 13 | 7 | 4 | 61 | 29 | 46 |
| Crystal Palace | 24 | 11 | 5 | 8 | 47 | 42 | 38 |
| Coventry City | 23 | 10 | 5 | 8 | 39 | 35 | 35 |
| Bristol City | 22 | 9 | 5 | 8 | 38 | 36 | 32 |
| Millwall | 23 | 9 | 5 | 9 | 28 | 27 | 32 |
| Queens Park Rangers | 24 | 8 | 7 | 9 | 52 | 52 | 31 |
| Charlton Athletic | 24 | 8 | 6 | 10 | 37 | 39 | 30 |
| Cardiff City | 24 | 7 | 7 | 10 | 36 | 35 | 28 |
| Watford | 22 | 5 | 4 | 13 | 26 | 42 | 19 |
| Colchester United | 24 | 5 | 2 | 17 | 28 | 69 | 17 |
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