Petty’s Pride Despite Liverpool Defeat

- Leicester City’s Development Squad narrowly beaten by Liverpool
- The Reds won 1-0 at LCFC Training Ground on Saturday
- Layton Stewart’s first-half goal proved to be the winner in Premier League 2
- Coach Ben Petty shared his thoughts with LCFC TV after the game

The Reds left LCFC Training Ground with a 1-0 victory on Saturday courtesy of Layton Stewart’s 33rd-minute goal, as the Foxes youngsters fell to a second successive home defeat in Premier League Division 1.

However, the result did not tell the full story, Petty believes, as he explained to LCFC TV in his post-match interview following the final whistle in Seagrave.

“I feel immense pride,” he commented. “I thought that was our best performance of the season against a very strong Liverpool team. I thought we took the game to them, we created lots of chances and although they had one or two chances in the second half, it was more because we were pushing on.

“You’ve got to take your chances. We just needed to be more clinical and have a bit more belief in ourselves. I said to the players in there, we have to find another way to bring the goals apart from Tawanda [Maswanhise] because he’s been a brilliant goalscorer for us.

“But I thought the performance was outstanding. The last two games in PL2 have ended in defeat, but tonight I don’t think anyone could say we didn’t put up a good performance.”

Having named the likes of Arthur Melo, Nat Phillips and Fabio Carvalho in their starting XI, there was plenty of first team involvement in Liverpool’s side, and Petty praised how City coped with coming up against such high-profile opponents.

The 45-year-old explained: “They stood up to it, they rose to the challenge. Sometimes you see a teamsheet as a young player and there’s a bit of fear, but there was no fear. I thought one or two of our players really excelled. Sammy [Braybrooke] playing against Arthur Melo tonight, it was an outstanding performance.

“He looked the best player on the pitch for me. That’s what it’s about for us, developing players for the first team and to move on into the leagues. It was very encouraging tonight and a fantastic game for our players.

“We’ve seen it a few times here in Seagrave. Teams send very strong sides to play against us and that’s a feather in our cap. Our lads want to pit their wits against these top players, so I’m delighted in the performance, but obviously disappointed with the result.”

Chituru Odunze also excelled between the sticks, saving a second-half penalty from Stewart which kept Leicester in the game and although ultimately in vain, allowed them to push on and try to force an equaliser.

“He made some really good saves at crucial times to keep us in the game,” the coach said of the American shot-stopper. “And then I felt the last 20 minutes we were really getting to grips with them physically. I thought they were struggling a little bit and we were really pressing hard.”

Chelsea Under-21s are next up in PL2 after the international break, with a trip to Kingsmeadow scheduled for Friday 1 October (7pm kick-off). It’s a fixture Petty is already looking forward to after encouraging recent performances.

He added: “We’ve been working really hard on the training ground. I think the schedule has been fantastic for the players. We’re delighted with the games programme - lots of games on different days of the week, so they’ve really had to prepare and focus. It’s preparing them for what’s next.

“We’re going to lose around 10 of the players so it will be a smaller group over the next week or so, but we’ll work really hard again and in two weeks we play Chelsea which is going to be another really tough game.”