The Lockstep Trophy

[sinkov]

Semi-Finals tonight.

Lancaster City v Burnley U23s
Clitheroe v Ashton Athletic

Final and 3rd place play-off at Lancaster on Saturday. If it's Burnley v Clitheroe in either game I might just have a look over.

[sinkov]

Clitheroe 1 Ashton Athletic 0
Lancaster City 2 Burnley U23s 1

And it's an awful long way from Lancaster City to the Premier League.

[The Bedlington Terrier]

Clitheroe 1 Ashton Athletic 0
Lancaster City 2 Burnley U23s 1

And it's an awful long way from Lancaster City to the Premier League.

An alarming result in many ways is that one. If young professional footballers can't put away decent non-league teams, I fail to see the point of nurturing them.

[wanderlust]

Is that the the EFL trophy (Papa John's Trophy last season)?

Last year it was won by L1 Sunderland (who beat L2 Tranmere in the final) despite it including the U21 teams of Liverpool, Man City, Leicester, Villa etc.

In the group stages Sunderland beat Villa U21s 8 - 1

It's viewed as a chance for the kids to play men's football and by L1 and L2 teams as a chance to check out fringe players.

As mentioned elsewhere, it's a massive step up from the academies to any level of men's football, let alone Premiership games but you only need one or two to make the transition and it pays for the whole Academy.

[ClaretinBudapest]

I think you will find the really talented players come from poor backgrounds as was always the case not those that are pampered in academies.It makes scouting especially in far away and often poor places all the more worthwhile.

[Swissclaret]

An alarming result in many ways is that one. If young professional footballers can't put away decent non-league teams, I fail to see the point of nurturing them.

According to the report everything was going ok until substitutions were made, with trialists being amongst them. Hopefully, that is not an excuse. I do not buy into the approach to these types of matches. Winning breeds winning. Winning a trophy is good for morale.

Surely other friendliest could be used for trialists and giving others match experience.

[sinkov]

Is that the the EFL trophy (Papa John's Trophy last season)?

No, it's just a little competition cobbled together by Lancaster, to make what are basically pre-season friendlies a bit more competitive and meaningful. Although to be fair, the way the Clitheroe players celebrated when the ref blew the final whistle last night, and they'd hung on to a 1-0 lead, it was obviously more than just a friendly to them.

[sinkov]

Burnley U23s v Ashton Athletic 12.30
Lancaster City v Clitheroe 3.00

Can't get over in time to see the U23s, but I'm hoping for a better result, Ashton are two levels lower then Lancaster, our youngsters should be able to see them off.

After a bit of trouble at t'mill, ex-Claret David Lynch departed his position as Clitheroe player-manager after last Wednesday's game, two of the senior players running the show today. It came out of the blue but I'm not too surprised, I can make a good guess at what's behind it, and I'll find out for sure soon enough.

[wanderlust]

BFC at Oldham today.
Oldham starting 11 has 3 triallists.

[sinkov]

Beat Ashton 1-0, so did Clitheroe on Wednesday and there are no potential PL players at Clitheroe.