McAteer: The Fans Really Pushed Us

Next Match | Tuesday 21 April Tue 21 Apr

HUL

(H)

01 D

17 H

12 M

36 S

Interviews & Features

Heritage

Photos

McAteer: The Fans Really Pushed Us

Kasey McAteer credited the travelling Blue Army for their support during the 2-2 draw away at Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday.

2025-04-14T10:50+01:00

by Sam Jones

Published

14 Apr, 2025

McAteer: The Fans Really Pushed Us

Kasey McAteer credited the travelling Blue Army for their support during the 2-2 draw away at Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday.

Sam Jones

2025-04-14T10:50+01:00

McAteer: The Fans Really Pushed Us

Kasey McAteer credited the travelling Blue Army for their support during the 2-2 draw away at Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday.

Sam Jones

2025-04-14T10:50+01:00

McAteer: The Fans Really Pushed Us

Kasey McAteer credited the travelling Blue Army for their support during the 2-2 draw away at Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday.

Sam Jones

2025-04-14T10:50+01:00

McAteer: The Fans Really Pushed Us

Kasey McAteer credited the travelling Blue Army for their support during the 2-2 draw away at Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday.

Sam Jones

2025-04-14T10:50+01:00

We drew 2-2 with Brighton & Hove Albion at American Express Stadium on Saturday
The result stopped a run of eight successive Premier League defeats for the Foxes
Kasey McAteer started on the South Coast and assessed the improved display

Stephy Mavididi and Caleb Okoli both struck for City at American Express Stadium, leading to a first Premier League point since the end of January, despite two João Pedro penalties twice putting the hosts into the lead.

Backed by a sizeable following of Foxes fans, the Academy graduate felt the confidence beginning to return after the first-half equaliser, also our first goal in nine matches, though it could have been even better had Ruud van Nistelrooy’s side converted one of the late chances created on the South Coast.

“It’s gone down well; we are happy with the point,” McAteer assessed. “We were a bit disappointed that we didn’t get the third goal because we were really pushing in the second half and we felt like we deserved to win the game.

“We did make a few mistakes in the second half, one leading to their second goal, but overall we’re really happy to break that cycle. When you score goals, confidence grows, and in the past weeks we’ve not done that.

“Shooting towards our fans in the away end in the second half, they really pushed us as well. Credit to them, they came in their numbers and we really appreciate it. It’s been a tough run recently, but they’ve always been behind us. The distance that they travel is top notch. The more they stick with us, then we can only look forward now.”

Talking through both goals, the winger, who was in City’s starting XI for the first time this calendar year, was pleased to see Italian centre-back Okoli notch his maiden Premier League strike, while Mavididi’s return to the team was also marked with a goal.

“I’m glad he scored because he had a chance before that he should have squared to me but he didn’t,” the 23-year-old explained on Mavididi’s strike. “I was fuming but I’m really glad for Stephy.

In from the start at Brighton.

“To break that cycle that has been going for a few games, it gives us confidence and now going into the next game, we can hopefully take it into that game.

“[Okoli’s goal was] top notch. We’ve worked hard in training to work on set pieces with Hughesy (Andrew Hughes) a lot. Obviously in recent weeks we’ve not created a lot of chances so we’ve not had a lot of set pieces, but today we really showed that we can hurt teams on them. I’m delighted for Caleb to get his goal as well.”

Ending a difficult spell of results, McAteer hopes the renewed belief within the squad can be used in upcoming encounters, with Liverpool to come on Easter Sunday, though he acknowledged the scale of the task ahead against the league leaders and how Leicester’s situation remains challenging.

“We know that the games we’ve had have gone against us,” he added. “Today we said to go out there, look forward and enjoy playing football because we’ve got nothing to lose. The boys were really driven with that.

“The Manager pushed us with that as well and we came out here and wanted to show ourselves and express ourselves as a team and individuals. That’s why we did and I think that’s why we played so well. We weren’t thinking too much and just played the game of football.

“You can look at our run and teams will write us off straight away. But at the same time, we’re still a team, we’re still together in the dressing room, all fighting for each other day in, day out. Sometimes it might not look like that to our fans but we are. We don’t stop trying.

“We can take loads of positives. We’ve been showing that we can score goals. We’ve got goals in the team. We just need to create the best chances to score those goals.

“Obviously it will be a tough one next week against Liverpool but we’ll look forward to that game, get rested and recovered now and go into that game full of confidence and hopefully score a few goals to put on a show for our fans.”

LATEST HEADLINES

Page, James & Braybrooke Win Seasonal EFL Honours It was a memorable evening for Louis Page, Jordan James and Sammy Braybrooke at the EFL Awards as they picked up seasonal honours for their displays during the 2025/26 campaign.

4 Hours 32 Mins Ago

Rowett ‘Deeply Frustrated’ After Pompey Defeat Gary Rowett expressed his frustrations following Saturday’s 1-0 away defeat to Portsmouth at Fratton Park.

17 Hours 32 Mins Ago

U18s Lose Out To Norwich Norwich City claimed all three points in Saturday's U18 Premier League South clash at LCFC Training Ground.

18 Apr, 2026

City Fall To Defeat At Fratton Park Portsmouth came away with a 1-0 success over Leicester City in Saturday’s crunch Sky Bet Championship clash at Fratton Park.

18 Apr, 2026