Flynn Delighted To Earn Another PL2 Victory
- City’s Under-23s beat Derby County 2-1 at King Power Stadium on Friday
- Shane Flynn scored Leicester’s equaliser after Jack Stretton’s opener
- Tawanda Maswanhise then netted the winner seven minutes from time
- Flynn gave his post-match thoughts to LCFC TV following back-to-back triumphs
The young Foxes registered a 2-1 win over the Rams at King Power Stadium courtesy of Flynn’s first Premier League 2 goal of the season and a late strike from second-half substitute Tawanda Maswanhise.
They had to come from a goal down though, falling behind to Jack Stretton’s fifth-minute opener, but responded just four minutes later in front of the Blue Army on Filbert Way. The result, coming off the back of victory versus Manchester United, moves the side coached by Ben Petty up to fifth in the PL2 standings.
He told LCFC TV post-match: “First of all, we’re delighted to get the three points, that’s the main thing to keep moving forward in the table and to keep gaining momentum for the last few games of the season. Since the turn of the year, we’ve been in good form. We’ve had a couple of blips but for the most part we’ve done well.
Flynn & Maswanhise Seal PL2 Success Over Derby
Shane Flynn and Tawanda Maswanhise were on target for Leicester City's Development Squad to defeat Derby County 2-1 at King Power Stadium.
“In terms of performance, I think we’d have liked to have played better. We had more of the ball throughout the game and second half especially. If we could have created a bit more, we’d have been happier, but sometimes you don’t play 10 out of 10 but it's important that you get the win, and we did that today.
“It’s never nice to go down 1-0 at the start of the game, that was disappointing. At King Power Stadium you want to start on the front foot and attack from the off. Teams are usually most vulnerable just after they score, and we’ve taken advantage of that and got one back ourselves which was a great reaction.”
Talking through his goal, a fine volley to meet Joe Wormleighton’s pinpoint cross, the defender revealed his intentions to be involved in the attacking play more frequently before the end of the season.
City then had to wait until the 83rd minute to break the away side down again, but after the tactical switches deployed at half-time, the Republic of Ireland youth international was always confident that they would find a way through.
“I used to be a winger,” he explained. “I haven’t played wing-back too often this season but when I play there I need to start adding more goals and goal contributions to my game so I’ve been working on that in training, trying to get into the box and when I saw the ball go out wide it was just a natural movement to get to the front post and stick my foot out to try and get something on it.
He (Ben Petty) said to us at half-time that we hadn’t pressed well enough. You could see that from watching. For the second half we tweaked a couple of things and we’ve done a lot better, won the ball a lot higher up the pitch and didn’t allow their midfielders to get on the ball as easily as they did in the first half and I think that showed in that we had better chances in the second half.
“I think you have to remain confident, stay composed and keep pushing at them. JT (Tawanda Maswanhise) had a good chance that was saved. Will Alves had a couple of chances that were saved but you’ve just got to keep pushing because another chance will come.
We're Gaining Momentum, Says Flynn
Goalscorer Shane Flynn speaks to LCFC TV after helping Leicester City's Development Squad to a Premier League 2 victory at King Power Stadium.
“We had chances, it wasn’t like we were struggling and had one chance and thought that was the one. JT has done extremely well to win the ball back and get the winner. Thankfully we managed to take one and get the win.”
Commenting on the atmosphere and experience of playing on Filbert Way, a scenario Leicester’s Under-23s will face again on Monday evening against Blackburn Rovers, Flynn believes these occasions will stand the squad in good stead for the future.
“It’s always good,” the full-back added.” It’s nice to get into the stadium and see first-hand what the first team pitch is like and see what they are playing on. The crowd isn’t the exact same in terms of numbers but it’s still nice to play in front of people.
“When the weather is like this you can’t complain, you have to enjoy what you’re doing and today I definitely did.”