O'Connor: We're Disappointed To Lose

Development Squad
22 Dec 2020
2 Minutes
Darragh O'Connor gave an honest assessment of the performance from Leicester City's Development Squad in their defeat by Arsenal.

- Leicester City's Development Squad were in action against Arsenal Under-23s on Friday, losing 2-1
- City are 11th in the Premier League 2 Division 1 table after 11 games, heading into the Christmas break
- Defender Darragh O'Connor spoke after scoring in the defeat at Meadow Park
- He felt the Foxes were unfortunate to go home from north London empty handed

The defender, who netted in Friday night's 2-1 reverse at Meadow Park, admitted they were frustrated to emerge from the Premier League 2 Division 1 encounter empty handed, despite an encouraging performance. 

O'Connor commented post-match: "At the end of the day, positive performances don't mean positive results and we didn't get that today. No matter how we played, it's the result that matters and we obviously didn't manage to get that.

"I was just in the right place at the right time to head it home, but it makes no difference whether I score or whoever scores, we didn't get the result we needed."

That was the message, to come out in the second half, get the ball down and play and create more chances. The more chances we create, the better opportunity we have to score, but unfortunately we didn't score in the second half.

Darragh O'Connor

Despite O'Connor converting Demarai Gray's set piece on the stroke of half-time, City did not manage to break through Arsenal's backline a second time.

"They (Steve Beaglehole and Ben Petty) wanted us to get on the ball more and be more composed," the Irish centre-back continued. "Every time we went into the final third we looked like we were going to score.

"That was the message, to come out in the second half, get the ball down and play and create more chances. The more chances we create, the better opportunity we have to score, but unfortunately we didn't score in the second half."

The result leaves Leicester 11th in the standings, although one eye will now be on a Papa John's Trophy clash with Tranmere Rovers on Wednesday 13 January (7pm GMT kick-off).

City have an EFL Trophy last 16 tie to look forward to after beating Salford City on penalties in the previous round.

The 21-year-old added: "I felt they (Arsenal) didn't cause us many issues. We were in control and then they were fortunate enough to get the second goal and you can't really say it was against the run of play, but we conceded.

"The message was to go out and not concede and score ourselves, so we weren't able to do that. We'll have a debrief now, just to see what we could have done better, what we did well.

"And then obviously our next game is in January so we've plenty of time to make things right, get more solid at the back and produce more goals."