McAteer: Go To Bradford With Confidence

- Leicester City's Development Squad head to Bradford City on Tuesday (7:30pm kick-off)
- The Club's youngsters face Mark Hughes' men in the Papa Johns Trophy group stage
- Midfielder Kasey McAteer has provided his pre-match thoughts to LCFC TV
- The talented youngster scored twice for City at Chelsea Under-21s on Saturday

City's youngsters travel to University of Bradford Stadium to tackle Mark Hughes' high-flying Sky Bet League 2 side in a 7:30pm kick-off on Tuesday. It comes following a hard-earned 2-2 draw at Chelsea in Premier League 2 Division 1 on Saturday – courtesy of two stunners from McAteer.

The 20-year-old midfielder, who helped Forest Green Rovers to promotion from League 2 last term, knows it'll be a stern test of Leicester's mettle in west Yorkshire. If they can go into the game showing confidence, however, McAteer says they have the quality to secure an impressive result.

He also spoke about returning to the Club this summer and becoming a regular feature of the Under-21s side.

"Bradford are a tough side," he told LCFC TV on Saturday. "I played them last season away with Forest Green. They’re a big, physical side, and it’ll be a hard game. We just need to go there and show our qualities. We need to believe in ourselves and hopefully we can get the three points there.

"It’s great being back at my boyhood club. I feel like I’ve been playing well, I just need to keep pushing, keep striving towards the top, and hopefully with how I work and with the support of the staff and the team, I’ll get there in the end."

On Saturday, McAteer struck twice to equalise goals from Charlie Webster and then Omari Hutchinson to help register a commendable 2-2 draw at Chelsea. In the end, though, the young Foxes will have been disappointed not to have taken all three points after pushing hard for a late winner.

"It was a tough place to go, we know Chelsea are a good team," McAteer added. "I thought, in the first 20 minutes, we were on top. In the second part of the first half, I felt we let them back into the game a bit more. That was reviewed at half-time and then, in the second half, we finished the better side.

"We were pushing for a third and the winner so we’re happy with the draw, but a bit disappointed we didn’t get the win."

Although admitting his first goal was in fact a cross, McAteer also provided an insight into the work done on the training field to make instances like the second goal possible.

"No, I didn’t mean it, but a goal’s a goal at the end of the day," he begun. I was looking to find JT (Tawanda Maswanhise) in the box, but I’ve completely mishit it and it’s gone into the goal, so that’s all that matters and every goal counts!"

On the second goal, he added: "It’s come to [Chris] Popov, Fitzy (Ethan Fitzhugh) has laid it to me with a great bit of play and then I could just see the goal in front of me and I thought: ‘Why not have a crack?’ I’ve had a shot and it’s gone in, so I’m delighted with that.

"We do loads of practice… phases of play, link-up play. You saw the qualities we have in the team and it shows that we were disappointed to come away a draw. That shows our determination to get the win, so we’ll take a point."

All times BST.