Coach Ben Petty felt it just wasn’t their night as Leicester City’s Development Squad fell to a 4-1 defeat away at Arsenal Under-21s on Friday.
-Leicester City’s Development Squad were beaten 4-1 by Arsenal
– Tom Wilson-Brown scored the visitors’ goal at Meadow Park
– Friday’s PL2 reverse was the young Foxes’ first defeat of 2023/24
– Coach Ben Petty reflected on a tough evening for the youngsters
Although the young Foxes took the lead via Tom Wilson-Brown’s goal just before the break, the Gunners responded almost immediately courtesy of Ethan Nwaneri’s equaliser. A red card for Paul Appiah four minutes after half-time put City on the back foot and the 10 men were soon behind – Nwaneri doubling his tally.
It took just five more minutes for James Sweet to extend the advantage and Nwaneri rounded off the scoring late on.
“We did well to get a goal in front,” Petty admitted post-match. “We were really pleased with the way the game was going. To concede in injury-time in the first half was a blow, but we regrouped at half-time.
“We had a plan for the second half and we started okay, and then the decision goes against us. Obviously going down to 10 men away from home at Arsenal is always going to be tough.
“But the players gave it everything and we’ve got no problem with it. We’ve just got to take the decision as it was. We all know that it probably would have been a lot different if we’d have kept 11 men on.
“We’ve looked at the decision back and we think it’s very harsh, but that happens in football. As harsh as it was, it hasn’t been our night tonight.”
A tough second half ultimately led to leaving Meadow Park empty-handed, though there is encouragement to be taken from the first-half performance, City’s coach believes, especially given the youthful make-up of the squad that travelled to the capital.
“We were terrific in the first half,” the 46-year-old continued. “I thought the lads played to the plan. We lost four players to injury on Monday night. Four scholars were involved tonight. It’s a very, very young team. I thought they approached it in the right way.
“We knew that Arsenal were going to be strong and dominate the ball, but we were compact, we were tight and we tried to play in our way when we could. Unfortunately, in the second half, like I said, it didn’t go our way.”
Keeping morale high going into another away trip to Blackburn Rovers on Sunday afternoon (1pm BST kick-off) is of paramount importance, having started the Premier League 2 season with a win over Derby County.
Petty added: “We just have to pick ourselves up and go again. But if we keep playing like that and we keep showing that attitude and work ethic, we’ll be fine.
“These games are here to test the players and the staff, and we’re all very disappointed about the result. But the players will learn a lot from tonight, I’m sure.”
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