Beaglehole: A Brilliant Start At LCFC Training Ground
- Leicester City's Development Squad beat Manchester United Under-23s 4-2 at LCFC Training Ground
- Coach Steve Beaglehole was pleased with City's start and their second-half performance
- Goals from Callum Wright, Thanawat Suengchitthawon (2) and Jake Wakeling sealed a fifth league win
- Beaglehole has called for improvement in defensive areas, however, and more clean sheets in 2021
Callum Wright's opener was added to by a brace from Thanawat Suengchitthawon and Jake Wakeling's superb lob in Seagrave on Monday to move the Foxes up to ninth in Premier League 2.
However, City's youngsters had to fight for victory in Seagrave, as the Red Devils came back from two goals down to be level at the interval, courtesy of two efforts from Anthony Elanga.
Beaglehole, the Club's Senior Professional Development Phase Coach, credited Leicester's Under-23s with remerging after the break to reassume control of a competitive fixture.
"It’s a fantastic place to come and play football and the lads must be relishing the next game here," Beaglehole told LCFC TV following the Foxes' fifth league win of 2020/21.
"I thought we started the game magnificently. We were 1-0 up after only a few minutes, with a really high press, and then we got to 2-0.
"Then, we were sloppy and we got punished because we gave them too much space to get into and they’ve got some good players, so to go in 2-2 after that start, was disappointing.
"I said to the lads at half-time that I didn’t think they’d done enough to get a draw. They had to go for it, and we were better in the second half.
"We scored two very, very good goals and we nullified their threat in a lot of situations. We went man-to-man pretty much all over the park and I was pleased, defensively, in the second half.
"It was a very entertaining game with some very good players on show from both sides and it’s brilliant to start our first game here with a win against a really good side."
City's Development Squad can now look forward to a considerable amount of home fixtures in the New Year - and Beaglehole is hoping that can be an advantage for them in Seagrave.
"I think people didn’t realise so much how hard it is going away all the time," he continued. "The travelling and unfamiliar set-ups can be tricky.
"Now, we know where are and hopefully we can build on that and get into a similar sort of rhythm that the first team have got, which is a terrific habit to get into.
"If we can win games, as they are, and start getting clean sheets, it’ll be great for us."