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Only Preston survived the weather, and the champions finished in fine style beating Oldham 5-1. Any accusations of winning the league by default were thus dispelled by this result, as Tranmere could not have caught them even if they had won their unfulfilled fixtures.
The three northern conferences all finished this weekend, even though all were incomplete. The Merit League now comes into formation this Saturday, with the top three teams from each conference playing each other, as do the bottom three. Those in the middle form a third league.
For us, that means our opponents are as follows:
from the North West: Oldham Athletic, Stockport County, and Carlisle United
from the North East: Bradford City, Lincoln City, and Grimsby Town
from the North Central: Chester City, Notts County, and Doncaster Rovers.
We don’t have the full fixture list as yet, but we can tell you that we play the following on these dates:
February 22nd: Carlisle United (H) 11am
March 8th: Bradford City (A)
April 12th: Doncaster Rovers (H)
April 19th: Lincoln City (A)
Finally, Tranmere Rovers are back in cup action tonight at Prenton Park, taking on Port Vale in the 5th Round of the FA Youth Cup, with the prize a quarter final tie away at Man Yoo. Like Tranmere, the Valiants have a strong youth set up, and will be boosted by the fact that they won’t have to face one half of the Rovers’ dynamic duo strikeforce, Paul Robinson. The prolific forward has gone out on loan to Vauxhall Motors for a month to gain some first team experience, and he played in the 2-1 Unibond Premier Division win against Droylsden on Saturday.
Perhaps of more interest to Clarets fans though was the opposition teamsheet, which featured former Claret Alex Kevan. Alex had a squad number during the 1999-2000 season although he never made a first team appearance, and was released at the end of that season.
Final Youth Alliance League Table
Burnley's Youth Alliance League Results