U18s Report: Tottenham Hotspur 2 Leicester City 0

With Wednesday’s Youth Cup last-four first-leg fixture at Manchester City in mind, Under-18s manager Trevor Peake rested a number of players, which handed several Under-17s the opportunity to step up to the mark.
City couldn’t break down their opponents’ defence in the first half, despite a productive early display in London. Second half opportunities also fell City’s way, but it was Tottenham who ran out eventual winners after goals from Ryan Loft and Chris Paul.
Reflecting on the defeat, Peake told LCFC.com: “We tried to have Wednesday in mind in our team selection, so some of the Under-17s who hadn’t had too much Under-18s football started the game.
“I thought we did quite well in the first half, although we were probably guilty of not working their goalkeeper enough despite having quite a bit of possession in the last third.
“After a goalless first half, we had an early chance in the second half which saw us go one-on-one against their ‘keeper, but missed the mark.
“We were then awarded a penalty, but missed that opportunity as well. We could have stamped our authority on the game, but we didn’t take advantage.
“We went down to 10 men which made it more difficult to get into their half and then conceded a penalty, which Spurs duly converted to go 1-0 up. After that Tottenham doubled their lead as we tried to push forward.
“We couldn’t capitalise on our chances, but again, it will be a decent learning curve for all those involved in the game.”
Despite missing out on finishing in the top four of the U18 Premier League, the young Foxes remain in high spirits ahead of their Youth Cup Semi-Finals first-leg tie with Manchester City at their Academy Stadium on Wednesday evening (7pm kick-off).
Anticipating a challenging test, Peake added: “The lads can now start thinking about the FA Youth Cup game against Man City. It will be a real tough game for them as we know, but they’ll certainly give it their all.
“Some that will be involved in the cup game either only played a part of the game against Spurs or didn’t play at all, but those who didn’t feature travelled down anyway because we wanted to keep them all together – it’s a group effort.”