Disappointing To Concede Late On, Says Barradell
- Leicester City Under-18s were beaten 4-3 by Fulham last weekend
- Thomas Olyott netted a hat-trick for the hosts at Motspur Park
- Kirsten Otchere, Jake Evans and Will Lawrence scored the Foxes’ goals
- City face Sunderland in the U18 Premier League Cup on Saturday
After a promising start to the 2023/24 U18 Premier League campaign, which saw the young Foxes pick up four points from their opening two games, Leicester suffered their first defeat of the season.
In a high-octane game, City were beaten in the final minutes at Motpur Park, as Thomas Olyott rounded off his hat-trick, and Barradell was disappointed to lose in such a manner.
“It was an exciting game for the neutral with lots of goals,” the coach stated. “There were positives to take but conceding late on again in the 88th minute and losing the game was really disappointing having been in it for so long.
“It was a much-changed team from the week before. We’ve been competitive in all three fixtures this season which bodes well going forward and it’s been a positive start to the season, but I'm disappointed with the goals we’ve been conceding and that’s something we’ll look to rectify.
“We pride ourselves on clean sheets, and we don’t like conceding goals. But we’ll learn from it and look to put things right quite quickly. We had two Under-16s scoring, and all four involved at the end of the game. To be involved this early on in the season is really pleasing to see and shows the promise we have in the lower age groups of the Academy.”
Leicester’s Under-18s started the season with a 2-1 win over Norwich City before drawing 2-2 with Brighton & Hove Albion at LCFC Training Ground, but the coach acknowledged that three more points could’ve been achieved if not for late errors.
He continued: “We could easily be sat here with seven points, if we beat Brighton and then got a draw against Fulham, but we’ve just got to tidy up in the latter stages of the game and keep our concentration for the full 90 minutes.
“It’s good learning for the lads, and we’ve got a break now in the league as we face Sunderland in the Premier League Cup, and we’ve got some work to do defensively, but also on the ball – we want to make sure we’re still scoring goals.
“We’ll be quite consistent with the team looking at the players available. We changed the team a lot quite a lot from the Brighton fixture because of availability, and some injuries, but now I’m expecting us to be a similar looking outfit this weekend.”
Preparing for Premier League Cup duty when they face Sunderland in Seagrave this weekend, Barradell is hopeful that City can learn from their mistakes and look to have a promising performance in the tournament.
He has enjoyed his time with the new youngsters coming through and is proud of the way they have developed so far, both on and off the field.
“It will be an opportunity to set up a little bit different and have a look at different aspects of our game,” the coach explained. “It’s been a pleasing start with the new group, in terms of pre-season and the boys coming together, and now with the Under-16s coming through – I’ve seen some really pleasing aspects.
“We’ll keep working, developing and hopefully keep pushing them through to the Development Squad which is what we’re all about.”