HUDDERSFIELD Town Under 21s have their eyes on a play-off place.
Steve Eyre’s side went second in the inaugural Professional Development League II North division with a 1-0 home win over Coventry on Monday.
While Leicester have already sealed the title, Jordan Sinnott’s goal lifted Town a point above Derby, who complete their regular-season fixtures away to Wigan today.
Town go to Leeds on Monday, and clinching the runners-up berth would set up a one-off play-off semi-final away to Southern section champions Charlton, who clinched the title with a 3-1 home win over Millwall on Monday.
“We certainly want to extend our season by getting into the play-offs, and whatever happens with the Derby game, we’ll go to Leeds looking to get the win,” said Eyre.
Senior players Joel Lynch, Scott Arfield and Theo Robinson all figured against Coventry at Canalside and Eyre added: “The senior lads played well and showed a great attitude.”
It’s been a bright season for 19-year-old scorer Sinnott, who made first-team starts in the FA Cup fourth-round games against Leicester and came on as a substitute in the Championship clash at Nottingham Forest.
“He made a strong run to score and he has got the fitness to do that,” said Eyre. “His back play is excellent so if he can start adding goals to his game it will only add to what I believe will be a very good career for him.”
The winner came with five minutes remaining and the coach explained: “I saw a goal coming when we were on top during the second half.
“We kept plugging away and that has been the story of the season for this group of players.
“There were a couple of challenges against Coventry.
“The first was to play two games in four days after the Sheffield Wednesday match last Friday.
“We had to try and repeat the performance we produced against Wednesday (that game ended 1-1). We also had to overcome some terrible conditions, which thwarted us for the most part.
“Coventry tried to stop us, but the wind did a better job. We had it on our side in the first half and we didn’t take advantage. We passed up a number of moments during the game, but one last push got us the goal.”
