Rudkin Sees Promise In U18s

But young Foxes will take plenty of positives from the loss, knowing that they came up against a Chelsea team with plenty of quality throughout the squad. 

Rudkin said: “To lose at that stage of the game is a particular disappointment – we worked very hard without the ball certainly in the first half. 

“We knew that Chelsea would come quite strong in terms of their personnel with a number of players who have featured with Chelsea’s first team during pre-season. 

“In the second half we started to really grow into the game – and we were certainly better with the ball. 

“Territorially we posed more problems and obviously to concede at such a stage in the game as we did is always disappointing especially from a set piece. 

“There’s a great deal of things for us to take from it. 

“We could have equalised right at the end where the ball rolled along the line after the keeper was beaten.” 

City travel to Southampton on Saturday 13 September following the international break where they will look to secure their first win of the Premier League season. 

Despite not having had the start Rudkin will have wanted for his youngsters, Rudkin is still optimistic of the season ahead, knowing it’s still very early days in his side’s long league campaign. 

He continued: “It’s fantastic for our players for them to play against this level – it’s the type of challenges we want our players to experience. 

“This is only our second game in and we’ve still got a lot of games ahead of us and we look forward to our next game against Southampton. 

“As we always do we will reflect upon the game and analyse the performance of both the team and individuals. 

“The players can be pleased how they kept going right to the end today and nearly earning a draw.”