A Learning Experience For City’s Youngsters, Says Petty

- Leicester City’s Development Squad lost 4-0 at home to Liverpool on Monday evening
- The fixture brought the curtain down on the young Foxes’ home campaign in Premier League 2
- Ben Petty was not too disheartened after a first defeat in seven at LCFC Training Ground
- City’s coach felt they conceded goals at key points in the game and could not recover

Coming up against a side packed with players possessing first-team experience, the Foxes youngsters did well to match the Reds for the majority of the first half, but it proved a killer blow to concede right before the break.

After that opener from James Norris, the visitors dominated the second period, scoring three times as Jack Bearne, Layton Stewart and James Balagizi all added their names to the scoresheet in Seagrave.

While crediting the opposition, City’s coach also felt Leicester were slightly off the pace, contributing to a disappointing night which ended a run of three consecutive Premier League 2 Division 1 victories.

He commented to LCFC TV: “I thought it was a classic example of a team in top form and showing a really good level of performance. We weren’t quite at it tonight. It happens, we’re still a very young evolving team and I’ve probably learnt more tonight than I did after the two victories last weekend, so that’s the beauty of football.

“It was massive respect to us and how we’ve been playing that they bring a side of that nature and there’s some top quality out there, there’s some Champions League experience and I think it will be a great learning curve for the likes of Will [Alves] and Sammy [Braybrooke] to play against Harvey Elliott and Leighton Clarkson and they acquitted themselves really well."

The away side took the game away from City at crucial periods, showing why they are unbeaten in PL2 since February and carrying the momentum of some impressive recent results to move into fifth position in the league standings, ahead of City on goal difference.

“We were a little bit naïve at times,” Petty admitted. “But I would expect that, and unfortunately for us we just lost goals at key times, just before and after half-time, and that killed us a little bit really. The momentum just shifted a little bit before half-time and unfortunately, we make an error that they seize on and get the goal.

“If we go in 0-0 at half-time, I think we can reset and then we lose Ben Nelson through a hamstring injury, which hurts us as well because we’re short on defenders and one or two players had to play out of position. We missed him when he went off, you saw out there tonight he made some great blocks. But again, it’s a good experience, a good learning curve and we’ll be better for this.”

Leicester had not tasted defeat at home since November, a six-game unbeaten streak which represents a strong first full season at LCFC Training Ground, ahead of tackling Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park in the final fixture of the campaign on Monday (7pm BST kick-off).

The 45-year-old added: “We’ve had a terrific run of home games and obviously tonight is a bit of a blip. We would have liked to have finished with a positive result, but I think our home games have been really fruitful.

“I think we’re building a nice atmosphere here; the crowd get behind us really well and even tonight they were really positive with the players, they could see that they were trying to play the right way and hopefully we’ll give them a lot more to shout about next season.”