Dewsbury-Hall: Mixed Emotions

- Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall reflects on making his maiden Premier League start for Leicester City
- It came in a 2-1 loss to Aston Villa at Villa Park on Sunday
- Harvey Barnes had given the Foxes the lead in Birmingham, but Ezri Konsa scored twice for the hosts

Named in Brendan Rodgers’ starting XI in England’s top division for the first time, Dewsbury-Hall was impressive in spells for the Foxes, who were unable to maintain their lead and left Villa Park empty handed.

Fellow Academy graduate Harvey Barnes opened the scoring early on with a tidy finish, however two goals from Ezri Konsa handed the hosts all three points.

The City No.22 told LCFC TV: “Obviously, I’m delighted to make my first Premier League start. It’s a moment I’ve waited for since I was a kid, and you dream that you get a win in your first Premier League start. I feel like we did enough in the game to get a good result.

“It is just little lapses of concentration in games that are hurting us at the moment. I thought, in the first half, we were really dominant, we pressed high and they struggled to get out.

“We had enough chances to go into half-time winning. It’s just set-pieces that are not helping us at the moment, and they’re the things that are punishing us.

“At this level, you get punished if you’re not concentrating, so it’s mixed emotions and it’s something that we need to look back on and try to eradicate.

“It’s even more frustrating because you know when you’re playing well in a game. It’s fluid, and then you have little moments in the game when a set-piece goes in and it does knock your confidence a bit, because you know you’ve played well and it’s about trying to keep that standard.

“As I say, we did enough in today’s game to be able to get a result. It’s something that we need to work on because it can’t keep happening. If we want to put a run together, especially in this couple of months when there’s a lot of games, we need to definitely work hard to cut those mistakes out.”

Dewsbury-Hall’s first start in the Premier League is another chapter in his rise from hopeful youngster to professional footballer, and although the result did not fall City’s way, he was still thrilled to gain more top-flight minutes.

He said: “I’ve been here since I was eight years-old and I found out yesterday (Saturday) that I was starting. It was a great feeling.

“It’s just something you dream of as a kid – to play in the Premier League for your boyhood club. The fact that I’ve managed to do that is just a dream come true.

“I’ve had great support over the years. It’s just a shame that we were unable to get the three points today, because that would have topped off a memorable day for me.

“I’m hoping that there will be more opportunities to come, and more time where I can be on the pitch for my boyhood club in the Premier League, because that’s the dream and that’s what I’m working hard to do. I’ll keep working hard to make sure that I’ll keep doing that.”

For City, there is no time to dwell on Sunday’s result. On Thursday, they travel to Diego Armando Maradona Stadium to face Napoli in their final UEFA Europa League Group C match knowing a win will secure top spot in their pool.

Dewsbury-Hall added: “The mood is a bit frustrated in the dressing room because of what happened today, but we can’t dwell on it because we’ve got a lot of games, and it’s a massive game in the Europa League on Thursday.

“If we win, we’re through to the next round, so it’s all focus onto that. We need to look at what happened today, look at the wrongs, try and put it right straight away and come Thursday, against a good Napoli team, go and get the three points because then we go into the knockouts of the Europa League, and we’ll keep pushing in the Premier League.”