Knight Header Seals Three PL2 Points In Brighton
Having beaten Sparta Prague B in the Premier League International Cup by the same scoreline earlier this month thanks to a fine goal from Knight, the Academy graduate struck again at the Amex Elite Football Performance Centre on Monday night.
In the early stages, stopper Viktor Johansson spread himself well to deny Aaron Connolly at the front post, before clawing the ball away to safety after Calvin Ughelumba had turned a cross towards goal.
A sweeping move then saw Tyrese Shade go close for Leicester on 23 minutes, as he flicked Ughelumba’s low cross wide, before the No.10 tested Brighton ‘keeper David Button with a low effort shortly after.
City continued to grow into the game and deservedly took the lead on 33 minutes. Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s corner was flicked on by Yohan Benalouane and into the path of Knight, who headed home to put his side 1-0 up.
At the other end, Benalouane was on hand to make a goalline clearance from Brighton attacker Viktor Gyökeres, who had the opportunity to level matters after Johansson had made the initial save to deny George Cox.
After the break, Shade had two efforts to double his side’s advantage, but on both occasions he could not beat Button from range.
Johansson, despite being unsighted by a crowd of defenders, then pulled off a top save to turn midfielder Max Sanders’ curling free-kick to safety.
Efforts from Dewsbury-Hall and Kairo Edwards-John followed for the Foxes, while another stop from Johansson in stoppage time, this time to deny Leo Ostigard, made sure of the win for the visiting side.
Who impressed?
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall proved to be a creative spark in the centre of midfield for the Development Squad against Brighton.
Displaying an impressive passing ability with an extensive range of deliveries, the No.8’s threat from set-plays was crucial as Josh Knight headed in from his corner before the break.
Where do we stand?
Leicester City’s Under-23s move up to sixth in the Premier League 2 table – just one point behind Brighton – following their victory on the south coast.
Coming up…
Up next for the Development Squad is a Premier League 2 encounter with Chelsea at Holmes Park on Monday 17 December (7pm GMT kick-off).
The game will be shown live and free on LCFC TV.
The details…
City: Johansson, Johnson (c), Ughelumba, Kaba Sherif, Knight, Benalouane, Leshabela (Edwards-John 70), Dewsbury-Hall, Muskwe (Ramsay 46), Wright (Tee 87), Shade
Subs not used: Davies
Goal: Knight 33