Wins for both Tranmere and Wigan against Rochdale and Bury respectively brought them both within a point of the young Clarets although we have one game in hand on Tranmere and three on 
It’s been a good first half of the season for the youngsters, apart from leading our league we have also won through two rounds of the Youth Alliance Cup and were so unluckily beaten last week in the FA Youth Cup against
The team have not relied on individuals but have played well as a team – we have been able to field a regular back four and keeper and only Tranmere, and with two very dubious penalties, have scored more than once in a match against us.
Getting bad decisions against you at Tranmere is something of a regular occurrence but we’ve been able to bounce back with another series of good results since.
The only other defeat came at
We don’t play again now until Saturday 8th January when Rochdale are at Gawthorpe with
Many of these lads have also been regulars in the reserve team and it was another bad start for this side when they kicked off with a 4-1 defeat against
It took us until our last match two weeks ago to win for the first time although things are getting better and the only other side to have beaten us are
Since then, Wrexham apart, there have been some creditable draws and the most notable was against leaders Manchester United at Hyde when an Alex Taylor goal earned us a point in a 1-1 draw.
Goals have been a bit difficult to find and we have scored just eight with
The next time the reserves play will be Wednesday 12th January when we go to
Overall it has been a good first half to the season for the youngsters – hopefully they will now go on, after their Christmas break, to lift a trophy that their performances to date have deserved.
Current Youths Table