- Leicester City’s Development Squad meet Brighton & Hove Albion on Monday evening
- The Premier League 2 fixture will be broadcast live and free on LCFC TV from 6:45pm
- Defender Shane Flynn offers his pre-match thoughts and discusses a tough start to the year
- He hopes home advantage can play a part in helping City to a positive result in Seagrave
The young Foxes began 2022 with a defeat at the hands of Chelsea last weekend, slipping down to 11th in the league standings, though the squad was depleted by call-ups to the first team’s Emirates FA Cup clash with Watford on the same afternoon.
Despite that, Flynn, who played 45 minutes at Cobham Training Centre, revealed that City came away frustrated with the manner of their second half showing in the capital, conceding four of the five goals in that period.
“When you come in at 1-0 down at half-time, the game is still well within the balance at that point,” the full-back told LCFC.com following his 10th appearance in 2021/22 in all competitions. “We’d had a couple of chances that on another day probably go in and the scoreline comes in different at half-time.
“But we let ourselves down in the second half, we know that, the coaches know that, so we just need to put it right come Monday.
“I think it was a chance for other lads who haven’t had as much game time this season to try and step up and make their mark and obviously it is brilliant for the five or six lads that went up to the first team FA Cup game, but then places are up for grabs at that point.
“You have to try and take positives and go into the game thinking: ‘I could have my chance to stake a claim here for future games’.
“For me personally, it was nice to get 45 minutes under my belt. It’s been a bit stop-start for me this season compared to last year so I was looking to just get my minutes in and get my match fitness up.”
A home fixture against high-flying Brighton & Hove Albion on Monday evening (7pm kick-off) presents an opportunity for Flynn and his team-mates to rectify mistakes and produce an improved performance in front of a home crowd at LCFC Training Ground.
The Republic of Ireland Under-21 international explained: “I think you have to try and put these wrongs right. We didn’t do ourselves justice, so we need to be at it from the first whistle to the last come Monday night and try to pick up three points.
“Playing games at home, you always want to be winning. It’s generally seen as an advantage, so we want to make use of that when we can and hopefully we can on Monday.
“If we can start on Monday night by picking up three points at home, leave last Saturday behind us and go on a good run, that would be a brilliant way to get away from that bottom area of the table and just try and pick up as many points as possible in the New Year.”
Flynn was also involved in the reverse fixture with the Seagulls back in September, when an injury-time goal cruelly denied the travelling Foxes a hard-earned point on the road, after Kasey McAteer’s late equaliser had restored parity on the south coast.
The defender added: “Looking back at it, I don’t think that winner in the last minute was deserved. We were unfortunate to come away from that game with nothing. Definitely, there is that feeling of wanting to get one over on them and put that game right.”
Supporters can tune into live LCFC TV coverage of the fixture from 6:45pm on Monday.
All times GMT.