Beaglehole Delighted With A Clean Sheet

- Leicester City's Development Squad drew 0-0 at Everton in Premier League 2 on Monday night
- The Foxes fought for 30 minutes with 10 men following Darnell Johnson's dismissal
- Steve Beaglehole says the squad should be proud of their efforts on Merseyside
- The Under-23s coach also highlights the personal performance of goalkeeper Viktor Johansson

The Club's Senior Professional Development Phase Coach, who oversees the Under-23s squad, was enthused by the nature of their performance, especially following Darnell Johnson's red card.

City were reduced to 10 men with half-an-hour still to play at Merseyrail Community Stadium, but the visitors dug deep and fought valiantly to seal a point on the opening day.

"I’m delighted with the boys," Beaglehole told LCFC TV at full-time in Southport. "I thought they played to the game plan, particularly when we went down to 10 men.

"We had to play two banks of four and kept rotating Adi (Admiral Muskwe) and Ali [Reghba] up front as a striker just to try and work the centre-halves.

"I said at half-time, I felt we played really, really well in the first half. We were the best team by far and we should have come in at least a goal up, but we know what they’re like.

"He’s (Everton coach, David Unsworth) obviously gone in and wound them up [in the] second half and we were expecting that.

"I said: ‘Look, if you keep a clean sheet here, that’s a fantastic result’. And that’s not being negative. I don’t think there’ll be many teams that come here and keep a clean sheet."

Earning a point at the home of Everton, who have lifted the Premier League 2 title in two of the previous three seasons, is something City can build on, Beaglehole says.

Reflecting on individual performances, the Under-23s coach picked out goalkeeper Viktor Johansson for special praise, but was keen to stress the importance of the team ethic.

"Everton know how to win games, make no mistake," he added. "They win games on set-plays, they win games with good front players... so I was delighted with the structure of the team.

"A lot of individual defensive performances were great and I thought Viktor [Johansson] in the last period, the last 10 or 15 minutes, when we came under the cosh a bit, [he] was excellent.

"He showed real quality. So [it was] a really good team performance. Yes, we’d like to play better in periods of the game, and so would they, but the pitch is difficult.

"It wasn’t a classic by any means, but I think it was a game that showed there was a lot of players on show from both sides that can play at a good standard now.

"A good start to the campaign and [I’m] really pleased for the team and for the staff that have worked hard in pre-season because the fitness levels look good.

"The lads look strong and, as you’ve seen, [they] worked really hard and with 10 men on a pitch like this, the biggest pitch, the fitness levels look great."

Leicester City's Development Squad fixtures will be shown live and for free on LCFC TV throughout the 2019/20 season.