U18s Reaction: Peake Credits Resilient Youngsters

A first-half goal from Marcus Barnes was enough for the travelling Saints to in the Barclays U18 Premier League clash, despite Leicester having a goal disallowed and hitting the bar late on.
The Under-18s have been in fine form so far this season, with the loss to Southampton only their fourth of the campaign.
“The game in general was a tough test,” said Peake. “They’ve got some lads that have been around their Under-21s this season so they’re obviously well-fancied playing at our level.
“We’ve played six Under-17s players today and some of them hadn’t experienced an Under-18s game before. It’s a great experience for them and by no means today did they let their side down. They showed a tremendous attitude and gave Southampton some problems.
“We could have been at least 1-0 up in the first minute and our goalkeeper didn’t have too much to do. The left-winger that they have was a bit of a handful and got in behind us. I don’t know whether the finish was exactly how their striker meant as it just ricocheted off his shin, but these things happen.
“We got into some dangerous positions ourselves without having that sort of finish or little bit of luck. We had a charge at the end and on another day we could have had a penalty or our goal wouldn’t have been disallowed. We hit the bar as well so if you’re going to lose a game, to me you go out fighting, and we certainly did that today.”
Despite the loss, Peake says his players have plenty to look forward to in the New Year. While they will continue their league campaign against West Bromwich Albion on Saturday 10 January, City also have the incentive of nine days later.
Peake added: “We’ve got to be positive. It’s important we get back after Christmas and hit the ground running.
“We need to come back well against West Brom at home – it’ll be really important to where we want to be finishing, which is high up the league table.
“We certainly won’t be taking our foot off the pedal. If anything, we’ll be pushing on. It’s a year to look forward to.”