'A Disappointing Night' – Barradell On Youth Cup Reverse
- Leicester City Under-18s defeated by Sheffield Wednesday in FA Youth Cup
- The Foxes lost 3-2 at Hillsborough despite leading the game at half-time
- City’s youngsters return to league action next Saturday against Aston Villa
- Barradell claims Leicester have got to do better in these occasions
After a third round win against Wolverhampton Wanderers in extra time, the Under-18s arrived to Sheffield with a positive attitude of progression.
However, they were defeated on the night by a Wednesday side who will face either Cambridge United or Chelsea in the next stage of the tournament.
Logan Briggs and Reece Evans gave City a two-goal lead, but the resilient hosts fought back to claim the win with goals from Joshua Chapman, Bailey Cadamarteri and Rio Shipston.
Deflated to be knocked out of the competition, coach Barradell revealed his frustrations to LCFC.com: “First of all, I’m disappointed. On the night, Sheffield Wednesday were better than us, we didn’t play to our level, and we had too many individuals that didn’t perform well.
“We’ve done well the past couple of years, in terms of going quite far in the competition so disappointed, but all credit to Sheffield Wednesday who were very good, and we couldn’t match them unfortunately.
“We’ve got look at ourselves as technically we’ve got to do better. We didn’t control the game, and out of possession, we’ve got to win more duels. We were the opposite of what we were against Wolves in the last round.”
As the youngsters come to terms with their elimination, Barradell explained how the young Foxes must learn from this harsh lesson that football had dealt them.
“I think they’ve got to take the learning points,” the coach stated. “Of course it’s sad to lose, but the best thing about football is that the next opportunity is always right round the corner.
“But when you nearly go into half-time 2-0 up and you’re thinking about changing shape, because the opposition have caused that many problems, then that shows the story of the game.
“We wanted to be on the front foot tonight, and be aggressive with our style of play, but unfortunately, they caused us problems, so we looked to change shape at the break while still being forward thinking, however that didn’t happen for a few reasons which we’ll digest in the next few days.”
Returning to U18 Premier League South action next week, Barradell spoke about how the boys need to find the courage to rally, not only for the aim of picking up points, but for the main focus of this youth setup.
“Long term development is what’s key,” he continued. “These nights are great experiences for us, they are the closest we can get to first team games at our level, so we’ve got to learn from this and improve going into the second half of the season.
“What’s important is that you hopefully start seeing some of these lads playing regularly with the Under-21s, and we start including more Under-16s in the second half of the season.
“What’s pleasing is that we had two from that younger age group feature tonight. As I’ve said, it’s disappointing to go out of the cup, but the most important thing for us is development.”