Beaglehole Thrilled With West Ham Result
- Leicester City's Development Squad triumphed 2-1 over West Ham United Under-23s in PL2 on Monday
- Islam Slimani and Demarai Gray got vital minutes under their belt, while Ricardo Pereira played for the first time since March
- Steve Beaglehole praised the performance of midfielder Khanya Leshabela, who assisted both of Gray's goals
- Playing at King Power Stadium alongside senior professionals is a fantastic experience for the young players, Beaglehole adds
Playing 80 minutes with 10 men following the early red card shown to defender Vontae Daley-Campbell, the Foxes were forced to dig deep in order to come away with three points from the Premier League 2 encounter.
Having taken a half-time lead via Demarai Gray, City were pegged back by a resurgent West Ham side, before Gray scored his second late on to snatch victory in a pulsating game.
Senior Professional Development Phase Coach, Beaglehole, told LCFC TV it was a game that could have swung either way.
"I'm delighted with the result," he said post-match. "So early in the game, to have one sent off when we'd got three senior players who were playing to get some game time.
Goals: Leicester City U23s 2 West Ham United U23s 1
Enjoy the goals from King Power Stadium as a brace from Demarai Gray sealed victory for Leicester City's Development Squad.
"We knew Ricky (Ricardo Pereira) was going to get a maximum of 60 minutes, possible only 45 minutes, so you're thinking 'how can we juggle the pack?'.
"It is a funny old game this football because you said to me before the game about West Ham doing so well in the EFL [Trophy] and we'd seen them play the last three games and they are a good side.
"They move it around, they've hit the woodwork three or four times. They'll play a lot worse than that and win and we'll play a lot better than that and lose, that's football. We could have easily lost it, but we won it and it is a good result."
Beaglehole praised the professional performances shown by the first team stars brought into the squad to notch up game time, as well as his young players, including central midfielder Khanya Leshabela, who notched two assists.
He continued: "A lot of pleasing things - one is the attitude of the seniors. Demarai [Gray] scored both goals, showed his quality.
"I thought Khanya [Leshabela] was excellent, he made both goals, which is great on top of the other side of the game, winning the ball, tackling, closing down, work rate, tracking runners.
"Some things that sometimes he's not been so good at, I thought he was excellent. But then to make both goals as well shows, for me, probably our best player, and Demarai with the goals that he obviously scored.
"I felt we were quite comfortable when we were 1-0 up, we went to 4-4-1, although they were a threat at times, I couldn't see them scoring. And then they get a penalty where we gave the ball away, Jakub [Stolarczyk] has made a decision but it's obviously a certain penalty, it's 1-1 and then we looked a bit tired.
"We've brought Ricardo off, we've got two 16-year-olds on the pitch. We went for it and we were positive, we played three at the back, we pushed everybody on, it was quite exciting at the time, it was end-to-end, so it could have gone either way."
The younger players in the squad in particular will have benefitted hugely from the experience of playing under the lights at King Power Stadium, possibly for the first time in their careers, according to Beaglehole.
"Just actually playing on here, knowing that the manager and the senior staff are here, that's extra pressure and that's pressure that you want to put them under," he added.
"Ben Nelson, he's not 17 until the end of June, he's been terrific for us. He looked a bit shaky tonight, made one or two erratic decisions, but you're bound to at his age and if he learns from it, tonight has been a great learning curve for him.
"Every game in PL2 is a test, even if they put young players out and that's how it should be really."