Exciting lineup, disappointing result: Young Foxes slip to derby defeat
In the opening part of a double header this week – with the first team welcoming Nottingham Forest to King Power Stadium on Friday night - Leicester City Under-21s suffered narrow Premier League Cup defeat at the hands of their Forest counterparts at a cold Seagrave on Monday evening.
What is the competition?
I thought it useful to begin with a brief explainer of the formats of the competitions that the Foxes compete in at academy level. Primarily, Leicester partake in league fixtures in Premier League 2, a 26-team league consisting of all the ‘Category One’ academies in the country (15 clubs whose First Team are in the Premier League, 10 from the EFL Championship, and Reading in League One).
Category One is the highest possible status, with clubs assessed on criteria such as facilities, coaching and education, all of which require much time and investment.
The 26 teams are split into five pots based on their performance over the past three seasons. In the 20 game-weeks, teams play each club in their pot once, in addition to between three and five clubs from other pots.
After the regular season, the top 16 teams enter a seeded knockout-style playoff to determine the overall winner. Leicester currently sit 9th, with nine points collected from six games.
Alongside the league, there is also the opportunity for knockout football in the Premier League Cup, which takes a format similar to that of International Competitions, and it was in this that City hosted Forest on Monday.
There are eight groups of four teams (32 teams overall consisting of those in PL2 and some in the league below, the Professional Development League), with the teams in each group playing each other both home and away. The top two sides in each group advance to the last 16, and from here it is regular knockout football.
Prior to the Forest visit, Leicester had played just one group game, beating Hull City 1-0 in September at the Eon Visual Media Stadium. Coventry City are the other side in Group B with the Foxes.
Finally, the academy compete on a third front alongside senior teams in the EFL Trophy (Bristol Street Motors Trophy), a 64-team competition with 16 groups of four teams drawn geographically. Comprised of 16 Academy teams and the 48 clubs in League One and League Two, each group consists of an academy team (which plays all group games away from home).
The top two teams advance to the last 32, and it continues as a knockout competition (with knockout games up to the last 16 still drawn geographically). The Foxes are in Southern Group F this season, alongside Burton Albion, Northampton Town and Notts County, and lost their opening group game at Burton Albion in August.
Facing the Forest
For the game on Monday Night, the Foxes made five changes from the league defeat at Blackburn last time out.
Harry French played in goal, with a flat back 4 ahead of him consisting of Jayden Joseph at right back, Jaymari Lindsay at left back and captain Harvey Godsmark-Ford and Liam McAlinney between them.
Toby Onanaye formed a midfield double pivot with Logan Briggs – this time slightly deeper compared to the advanced and wide midfield roles we have seen him play in recent outings – and hot prospect Will Alves came in as the attacking midfielder.
An extremely quick front 3 consisted of Jake Evans left, 15-year-old Jeremy Monga – a talent attracting recent excitement on social media for his performances in the younger age groups – right, and Kian Pennant through the middle.
It was a fast-paced, cagey first quarter of the game, as both sides looked to have spells on the ball and play out through the thirds, but found the midfield congested.
The Foxes looked to get Alves on the ball in promising positions, but he was often weaving out of trouble with his back to goal, rather than progressing the team up the pitch, thanks to what was overall an excellent performance from start to finish by Forest captain Ben Parry, who had clearly been tasked with keeping the exciting Leicester youngster quiet.
There were no real chances created by either team in the opening exchanges – only speculative efforts from the edge of the box, all of which were well blocked, with the box defending of all the central defenders strong throughout the game.
This theme continued in the first half, and it took a huge slice of misfortune for the deadlock to be broken on the half hour mark. Forest worked the ball out to quick right winger Jimmy Sinclair – another player who really impressed on the night – whose cross from wide took a huge deflection off Lindsay and looped tantalisingly over the head of French in the Leicester goal.
Officially down as a Lindsay own goal, this may have temporarily knocked the Leicester man’s confidence with Forest continuing to have joy down the right-hand side as half time neared. The interplay was strong, with Sinclair helped by the presence of Fin Back behind him – a 22-year-old with experience of League One football having been on loan at Carlisle United last season – who did look a level above.
It was on the same side that Forest carved out a huge chance on the stroke of half time, with Jack Perkins set clear through. His effort had French beaten, but Godsmark-Ford was there to clear and limit Forest’s lead to one at the break.
The second half began in a more open fashion, and Forest started strongest and were in the ascendancy, but it was the Foxes that drew level in the 59th minute. It was a rare occasion where Jake Evans was afforded space on the left-hand side, and he made the most of it, swinging a wonderful ball towards Joseph who had steamed forward to the far post. The Leicester man allowed the ball to bounce and subsequently expertly guided a looping header over George Murray-Jones.
Another 20 minutes of both sides probing followed – during which Will Alves was withdrawn on the hour mark – but it was Forest who found the net with what would eventually prove to be the winner in the 78th minute.
A wide free kick was whipped in with speed and a low trajectory from the right, and it evaded everyone with Forest’s Ben Hammond stretching to get first contact. The ball bounced back off the post, and it was substitute Jack Thomson who was quickest to react, finding the net with a rebound.
The visitors showed strong game management to control the game well from this point, seeing out a 2-1 away win after 5 minutes of stoppage time.
Forest were ultimately the better side on the evening and deservedly took all three points. The Foxes didn’t move the ball quickly enough throughout as they looked to progress through the thirds. With central areas congested, any joy looked like it needed to come from the pace of the wingers, but both Forest full-backs matched them well with strong all-round showings.
In terms of Leicester player performances, I was most impressed by the centre-back partnership, which could do little about the set piece and own goal conceded, but both players looked strong when defending the box and put in several key blocks and clearances to stem the visitors’ opportunities.
Where does that leave us?
Defeat leaves Leicester third in Group B, with one win from two games. This was Nottingham Forest’s first game, so they sit second on three points, behind Coventry who also boast a perfect record after their opening game. Hull sit bottom - pointless from two. With 4 games left in the group for the Foxes, it remains all to play for.
While second best to Forest on the night, Leicester will take positives into the return leg after a competitive fight in which the visitors needed a late winner to collect all three points.
Leicester are next in action in the Premier League Cup at Coventry City on 8th November for a 7pm kickoff. In the league meanwhile, the Foxes return on Friday night – also at 7pm – when they visit Chelsea at Kingsmeadow. The next Seagrave fixture sees Aston Villa visit in the league on the evening of 1st November.
That’s all from me – let’s hope that at the weekend we can look back on this week’s Forest double header with both a win and a loss in the bank, as our first team hope to even things out in the huge clash at King Power Stadium on Friday – see you there!
