Barradell Delighted With West Brom Triumph
- Leicester City’s Under-18s defeated West Bromwich Albion 5-2 on Saturday
- Mirsad Ali, Reece Evans, Jayden Joseph, Jake Evans and Kirsten Otchere all scored
- Coach Adam Barradell felt it was an excellent display from the youngsters
- City move up to eighth in the U18 Premier League South standings
A goal down at the break, the visitors emphatically responded in the opening moments of the second half, with Mirsad Ali, Reece Evans and Jayden Joseph all scoring inside six minutes of the restart, before Jake Evans and Kirsten Otchere added gloss to the scoreline late on, despite difficult conditions at West Bromwich Albion Training Ground.
“As a group of staff and players, we were delighted with the performance on Saturday,” Barradell reflected. “The weather was atrocious, it was tough conditions for the boys, but I thought they adapted. They were really flexible with how we played and the game plan. They played the conditions excellently.
“The amount of goals we scored, we’ve been saying it for a few weeks now, we knew it was coming. It was the same messages as the week before against Southampton. We dominated the first half in terms of efforts on goal, chances and a lack of concentration just saw us concede.
“But half-time was about being calm, sticking to what we were doing and being ruthless in both boxes. We knew the goals would come if we kept playing the way we were, but the lads stepped it up in the second half.”
Boosted by successive league victories, Barradell praised the work undertaken by the coaching staff at LCFC Training Ground, while also being able to welcome back several long-term absentees following injury.
“I thought Bobby Amartey was excellent on Saturday,” the 37-year-old continued. “He’s been around the Under-21s a lot this year but played centre-back and had an excellent performance. We brought in some boys who are coming back from injury.
“I thought Logan Briggs was excellent for 60 minutes and Jayden Joseph too. A lot of rehab has gone into those two boys so it was pleasing to see them come back and play so well. To see five different players score was really pleasing and it is credit to the amount of effort the boys have put in on the training pitch with the staff.
“We’ve got some excellent coaches working with the boys who have all had great careers and are now passing that knowledge on to the lads. The work that is going on at the moment is really pleasing.”
The young Foxes welcome Tottenham Hotspur to Seagrave on Saturday (11:30am GMT kick-off), with the Lilywhites currently sitting second in U18 Premier League South, behind leaders Fulham on goal difference. Leicester, on the other hand, have risen up the eighth in the standings in recent weeks.
“Tottenham have been doing well this season,” City’s coach added. “It’ll be a tough game. It’s one where we’ll have to be at our best to come away with a good performance and result.
“But we want to carry on the momentum and keep performing well. We’ve competed extremely well in every game this year and we want to keep that going with the performance level.”