Beaglehole: U21s' High Standards Paying Off

- Young Development Squad side beat Nike Academy 2-0 

- Danny Rowe and Brandon Fox on target for City at St. George’s Park 

Development Squad manager Steve Beaglehole believes his side will prosper if they continue to perform at the rate they have done in recent weeks. 

The Foxes beat the Nike Academy 2-0 at St. George’s Park on Saturday afternoon thanks to strikes from Danny Rowe and Brandon Fox. 

The result saw City record their third consecutive pre-season friendly win following dominant victories over Derby County and Loughborough Dynamo. 

And Beaglehole believes that if his side maintain their high standards both on and off the field, they will continue to record positive results. 

“We’ve set ourselves some high standards,” Beaglehole said. “We were a young side today. If you look at the opposition, a lot of their players have been released by the likes of Real Madrid and Barcelona. 

“We’ve played Nike Academy for the past few years and they’ve always given us a tough game. We’ve not conceded, so it’s another clean sheet, which is superb given the young side that we’ve got. 

“It’s a mixed team and a number of players have had to play out of position. A lot of them are from the Under-18s group that got to the semi-finals of the FA Youth Cup last year, so we know they’ve got some talent and they’ve shown that today.” 

While the fixture was goalless after 45 minutes, Leicester pressed in the second period, first breaking the deadlock thanks to Rowe’s neat finish before a sensational strike from Fox secured the win. 

Beaglehole added: “They’ve got to buy into the high-tempo work ethic that we’re trying to enforce at Under-21s level. It takes a bit of time and I’m pleased that as the game went on, we won the ball back more times higher up the pitch. 

“Consequently, in the second half, we hardly had any situations where we were under threat. We scored both goals in the second half and we created more opportunities. 

“It could have been a bigger win with better finishing, but we wanted them to come and improve during the game, and that’s exactly what they did.”