Beaglehole: Leicester's Youngsters Were Magnificent

- Leicester City's Development Squad secured a 2-0 win at Manchester United on Monday evening
- Ali Reghba and Mitch Clark found the net for City's Under-23s at Leigh Sports Village
- The Foxes sit top of the Premier League 2 Division 1 table at the end of matchday one
- Coach Steve Beaglehole was delighted by the nature of their performance against the Red Devils

City were dominant at Leigh Sports Village, twice hitting the woodwork, before Ali Reghba opened the scoring on day one in the league with a smart finish after a mix-up at the back.

The away side's performance was rewarded further in the latter moments as full-back Mitch Clark advanced before hitting a 25-yard rocket beyond goalkeeper Ondrej Mastny.

It means Leicester's youngsters have a 100 per cent record from their opening two games of 2020/21 after also defeating Hull City in the EFL Trophy group stage last week.

Reflecting on an encouraging opening to the new campaign, the Club's Senior Professional Development Phase Coach was delighted with the nature of their performances so far.

"We’ve had a great pre-season and they've returned and continued that winning mentality," Beaglehole told LCFC TV. "We had to work exceptionally hard tonight to keep a clean sheet.

"They've [Manchester United] got some young players, but they've spent a lot of money on those players, and they've got a great recruitment system going now, you know.

"They're up for every young player around in Europe and they've shown what they can do against physical players with Salford.

"So, I'm not going to take anything away from our lads tonight. I thought they were magnificent. To keep a clean sheet… I thought we defended magnificently.

"And then, when they did actually break through, the 'keeper Jakub [Stolarczyk] made two or three magnificent saves, absolutely top, top-drawer.

"I'm struggling to say to you who's the Man of the Match because I thought, again, like against Hull, a lot of the players got good marks - 7 or 8. They did their jobs well.

"They were very well disciplined again. I think the team, with Ben [Petty] particularly, are a very well-coached, disciplined, side; good in possession, good out of possession.

"It's really, really pleasing and, to come here, and play them with the quality they've got, the athleticism they've got and not concede is a big testimony to the way the lads have played."

While Reghba's opener came about due to City's high press, Clark's was a moment of individual brilliance - and Beaglehole was thrilled with the away side's attacking threat. 

"We took the game to them," he continued. "We pressed them high, we won it back, and I think we hit the woodwork two times in the first 10-15 minutes.

"To go in again without scoring [at half-time] was a bit unfortunate. But the big goal was to keep a clean sheet because I think they will score a lot of goals against a lot of teams.

"I was particularly pleased that we did keep them out and stop them opening us up. And then our goals were terrific.

"Ali Reghba, you know, he'd had one or two chances and I keep saying to him: pull the trigger. It's a great finish, you know.

"He battled his socks off up there against two good, young defenders, good centre-halves and Mitch Clark's goal... fantastic.

"Coming inside from that left-back position and to finish like that from 20-odd yards was terrific. So, a really, really good performance. Very pleasing."