We’ll Keep Working Ahead Of Arsenal, Says Barradell

- Leicester City’s Under-18s were beaten 5-1 by Crystal Palace last weekend
- Josh King scored the Foxes' only goal at Crystal Palace Training Ground
- City’s youngsters face Arsenal in U18 Premier League on Tuesday 28 March
- The fixture at Arsenal Training Centre has an 11:30am BST kick-off

Having picked up three wins from their last four matches, the young Foxes headed to the capital full of confidence, but two penalties guided Palace on their way to a 5-1 win.

Conceding two early goals gave the Under-18s a mountain to climb, but Barradell explained to LCFC.com about the resilience they showed to stay in the game until late on.

“It was a disappointing result,” the coach stated. “I felt conceding early, one from a penalty a one quickly after, made it difficult. But saying that, after going 2-0 down, I thought the boys responded well.

“We got back into it quite quickly and at half-time it was about regrouping and assessing the game plan again. We conceded another penalty in the second half but the thing I was frustrated about was the last 20 minutes. We shouldn’t have conceded another two goals.

“There’s lot to learn from the game, the boys have performed well over the last few weeks, and we knew it was going to be a tough game against Crystal Palace. It was a young squad, so it will be another learning curve for us.”

Looking ahead, the Foxes prepare for another U18 Premier League away match next Tuesday, against Arsenal, who currently share the same amount of points as Leicester. An away win for City, therefore, would see them leapfrog the Gunners.  

“We’re looking to regroup and reset ahead of Arsenal,” Barradell continued. “We won’t want to dwell on the Palace loss too much, and instead move forward.

“The table is tight, and we want to finish as high as we can in the league, so these games are important going into the last few games of the season. It’s a transitional period for us, with more Under-16s coming into the group as we continue to fill the Development Squad with Under-18s.”

In the higher age group, the Under-21s currently sit bottom of Premier League 2 Division 1, and were recently beaten by Tottenham Hotspur last Friday evening. However, the coach was pleased to see more youngsters within the matchday squad.

He added: “Bobby Amartey made his PL2 debut on Friday against Tottenham, along with Jahmari Lindsay who featured, so there are some real positives within the squad we have. Our aim is to keep developing, both individually and as a squad. We were disappointed with the result against Crystal Palace and I believe we could’ve done better.

“The game never really looked like how we expected or planned, so we’ll work hard to rectify our mistake for Arsenal next week so that we’re ready to compete and make sure the game looks like how we want it.”