U18 Report: Aston Villa 2 Leicester City 1

The Foxes were unbeaten on the road going into the clash after three wins and a draw on their travels and sat in an impressive fifth place in the league.
But the Under-18s couldn’t convert their chances on what proved to be a frustrating day for City.
A bright start saw Harvey Barnes play Kyle Bailey down the right wing, who crossed for Danny Rowe – the No.10 firing inches wide early on.
Plenty of possession for Jon Rudkin’s side saw opportunities to open the scoring but the visitors were hit on the break and went 1-0 down midway through the first half thanks to a strike from Callum O’Hare.
And the hosts doubled their lead shortly after when Rushian Hepburn-Murphy fired in – City 2-0 down at the break.
Leicester rallied in the second half and eventually earned a penalty when Barnes was brought down in the box.
And Layton Ndukwu converted the penalty kick to pull City back into the game, who pushed for the leveller in the late stages.
But a combination of superb saves from the Villa goalkeeper and a series of blocks from their back four denied Rudkin’s youngsters a deserved equaliser.
Speaking after the defeat, Academy director Rudkin said: “It was very windy conditions for both teams – something which Bodymoor Heath is renowned for.
“We played against the wind it in the first half which started off very brightly for us.
“Danny Rowe had a good opportunity to put us in front but unfortunately he put it just wide – it was a great opening and we had a lot of possession.
“We got punished on a counter attack after losing possession across our back four at which we went 1-0 down.
“And again, a similar situation happened resulting in the second goal which saw us go 2-0 down.
“Despite having possession we didn’t maybe turn it enough into chances created – we were two down at half time.
“In the second half, again the players started off very positively and territorially we can be quite pleased with how we were.
“We eventually got a penalty which was well taken by Layton Ndukwu.
“We hoped that would be the springboard for us to go on and get something from the game, but after a combination of some good saves and some excellent blocking at times from Aston Villa’s defence, we couldn’t break them down to get a point from the game.
“The boys will be a bit disappointed not to see something from the match – we possibly didn’t play as well as we have done in previous games.
“But we will look forward now to preparing for our fixture against Brighton and Hove Albion in two weeks time.”