Reserves and youth team to end year in second place

Jason Gilchrist - youth team leading goalscorer

The reserve league has become something of a joke and to date we've played just five of our twelve league fixtures for the season. So many Football League clubs don't have a reserve team now and I suspect that things are more likely to get worse than better.

We lost our first game of the season at home to leaders Preston but since then we've won three and drawn one of our four games; the draw coming at Oldham when we came from 3-0 down to earn a point.

We currently sit three points behind North End with a game in hand so winning that game would see us go top of the league.

As for the youth team, it's been a remarkable first half of the season. We won our first three games, then we lost three. It looked as though we were set to be an average side but that has definitely not proved to be the case.

Since those three defeats we've gone on to win eleven consecutive games. Seven of them have been in the league and that has left us behind leaders Carlisle only on goal difference, two in the Youth Alliance Cup and one each in the FA Youth Cup and the Lancs FA Youth Cup.

In 2012 we'll face Notts County in the Alliance Cup whilst Ipswich will travel to Burnley in the FA Youth Cup whilst we await the winners of Blackpool v Tranmere for our semi-final opponents in the county cup.

I think it is fair to say it has been a good first half of the season for these two teams and hopefully they'll continue their good form in 2012.

Below are a list of appearances and goals for each of the teams and the two league tables.

Central League

Appearances: Alex Coleman 5, Steven Hewitt 5, Dominic Knowles 5, Shay McCartan 4(1), Jon Stewart 4, Aryn Williams 3(1), Tom Anderson 3, Alex-Ray Harvey 3, Dave Lynch 3, Ross Wilson 3, Adam Evans 2(2), Mehdi Lazaar 2(1), Luke Conlan 2, Ellis Deeney 2, Wes Fletcher 2, Anthony Glover 2, Archie Love 1(4), Michael Duff 1, Anthony Ihou 1, Alex MacDonald 1, Marek Stech 1, Joe Jackson 0(2), Cameron Howieson 0(1).

Goals: Wes Fletcher 5, Dominic Knowles 4, Adam Evans 1, Steven Hewitt 1, Mehdi Lazaar 1, Joe Jackson 1, Archie Love 1, Dave Lynch 1, Shay McCartan 1, Ross Wilson 1

Youth Team (including cups)

Appearances: Alex Mullin 16(1), Archie Love 16, Adam Evans 15(2), Alex Coleman 15(1), Josh Cook 15, Aryn Williams 15, Steven Hewitt 14(3), Shay McCartan 14(1), Jason Gilchrist 13(4), Tom Anderson 13(1), Jack Errington 11(3), Luke Conlan 10(1), Cameron Howieson 8, Charlie Holt 3(5), Lewis Nuttall 2(8), Jordan Scott 2(2), James Taylor 2(2), Ben Woodhead 2, Dean Overson 1, Will Kinder 0(2), Nathan Lowe 0(2), Waqaz Azam 0(1), Andreas Bianga 0(1), Jamie Frost 0(1), Daniel Mukuna 0(1)

Goals:  Jason Gilchrist 14, Shay McCartan 13, Steven Hewitt 5, Adam Evans 4, Cameron Howieson 3, Archie Love 2, Alex Mullin 2, Lewis Nuttall 1, Dean Overson 1, James Taylor 1, Aryn Williams 1, own goals 1

CURRENT CENTRAL LEAGUE TABLE

CURRENT YOUTH ALLIANCE LEAGUE TABLE