PL2 A Great Experience, Says Full Debutant Wormleighton
- Leicester City’s Development Squad played out a 1-1 draw with Arsenal on Monday
- Tawanda Maswanhise opened the scoring ahead of Omari Hutchinson’s leveller
- Defender Joe Wormleighton was pleased to make his full debut at Under-23s level
- The 18-year-old hopes to get more opportunities in Premier League 2 this season
The 18-year-old played 90 minutes as the Foxes youngsters drew 1-1 with Arsenal at LCFC Training Ground, following three substitute appearances earlier in the campaign. A solid display against the Gunners led to LCFC TV co-commentator Gerry Taggart naming Wormleighton as his Man of the Match.
His impressive early-season performances for the Under-18s, coupled with several Development Squad players going out on loan for the remainder of 2021/22, has led to the defender being given his chance to shine at Under-23s level.
“I thought it was really good,” the full-back admitted in his post-match interview with LCFC TV. “It was really challenging, a big step up from the Under-18s but it was really enjoyable.
“It’s just what I wanted really, making that step up and having more of a challenge in the Under-23s. I’ve had a lot of appearances off the bench and travelled but not got on so to start tonight was really nice.”
Tawanda Maswanhise handed City an early lead from the penalty spot, but the hosts were pegged back shortly before the break when Omari Hutchinson found an equaliser.
That’s how it stayed, with both teams picking up a hard-fought point, despite Leicester’s tactical switch at half-time, with Wormleighton moving from a wing-back role into a back four to provide added impetus in midfield.
“It just means you can’t get forward as much,” he commented, explaining the difference in approach. “And you’ve just got to stay in because their wingers are really good to be fair to Arsenal, they were really dangerous, so we wanted to deal with them a bit more and stop them from just running the channels really.
“They’ve got some really good players, but I thought we were the better team. We played well, but just not at our best. It wasn’t our best performance, so it was probably a fair result in the end.”
We Were The Better Side, Says Wormleighton
Defender Joe Wormleighton felt Leicester City's Development Squad could have taken all three points from their 1-1 draw with Arsenal Under-23s.
The draw moves Leicester onto 26 points from 18 matches and stretches their unbeaten run to four games after winning three on the bounce. League leaders Manchester City visit Seagrave next Monday, but while acknowledging their quality, Wormleighton believes the Foxes will head into the fixture with no fear.
The Academy graduate added: “Everyone knows they are probably the best team in the country at the minute so that’ll be a huge challenge for us, but with the momentum we’ve picked up in the last few weeks, we’ll be going into that game with a lot of confidence, because we know we can get a result.
“It’s really important that momentum at the end of the season so we’d just like to pick up as many points as possible to go and finish as high as we can and up in the top four.”