Rudkin: A Real Team Effort

The young Foxes had to come from behind in the sixth round of the competition against Birmingham City at King Power Stadium on Wednesday evening, after George O’Neill put the visitors into a 1-0 lead on 36 minutes.
Midfielder Harvey Barnes hauled City level three minutes into the second half with a smart finish before right-back Darnell Johnson headed in an 88th minute winner .
“It was a quarter-final, which are always very tense affairs,” Rudkin told Foxes Player. “We started off very well and played some good football by creating one or two good openings.
“Birmingham made it difficult to play through with the two banks behind the ball, which offered the players a different style and challenge to play against especially as Birmingham countered very well. Birmingham then scored with a well taken goal off a set-play just before half-time.
“That probably put us on the backfoot a little bit, but I thought we responded really well in the second half. We started to think about playing more forward passes and we thoroughly deserved to get the equaliser – it was a very well taken goal from first year scholar Harvey Barnes.
“We went on to win it at such a crucial stage late on through schoolboy Darnell Johnson. Overall, it was a real team and group effort.
“It was crucial to capitalise on some of the set-plays that we had. We looked a threat so credit to Trevor (Peake) and Matt (Goodwin), who have been working particularly hard on set-plays. The game plan and team performance was very good. They can all be very proud.
“At half-time the lads were very reflective and knew the areas that they could go and hurt the opposition with, while also understanding what Birmingham’s dangers were. They looked very confident going back out for the second half and they always felt that they could get back in the game.
“Both teams can take great credit. Birmingham were very organised, disciplined and difficult to play through. It was a really pleasing performance for us.”
Leicester’s semi-final opponents are yet to be confirmed, with Manchester City and Crewe Alexandra set to face each other for a place in the last-four on Monday evening.
And with the other semi-final tie seeing Tottenham Hotspur take on Chelsea over two legs, Rudkin believes any side that the Under-18s face at this stage of the Cup will be formidable opponents.
He added: “There’s two very good sides still to decide our opponents in Crewe or Manchester City.
“We know at this stage of the season there are some very good sides remaining in the competition, but as long as the players perform to the levels that they’ve shown in the previous rounds, it should be a very interesting tie ahead of us.”