A Harsh Lesson, Says Petty
- Leicester City’s Under-21s were beaten by Liverpool in Premier League 2 Division 1
- Kian Pennant scored in the 7-1 defeat at Liverpool Academy on Saturday
- The loss leaves City’s youngsters bottom of the PL2 standings
- Coach Ben Petty says that the team must regroup and crack on
City’s Under-21s were handed a heavy defeat by the Reds, who shipped seven goals past them in Premier League 2 Division 1 action. Losing in such a manner was hard for Petty to take, as he tried to put into words his thoughts on the defeat.
“I was happy up until 40 minutes in,” the coach told LCFC.com. “When the game was 1-1 it was in the balance. I think the game really changed during the last five minutes of the first half, when we gave away two really poor goals, and we didn’t recover from that.
“Credit to the home side, they were very clinical today and they punished us for our mistakes. You can’t come to somewhere like Liverpool and defend like we did the last 50 minutes of the game.
“Liverpool hit the target with seven out of 10 attempts, so it was a harsh lesson which led to some harsh words afterwards, but we’ve got to regroup tomorrow and crack on this week."
After a quick start from the hosts, the Foxes did draw back level through Kian Pennant, but went into the break two goals down after a telling impact from Reds’ winger Ben Doak.
“It was the turning point,” Petty explained. “Obviously at half-time we discussed that if we got the next goal of the game, we would be back in it.
“But they score with their first attack of the second half, and it was a long way back for us. As you could see, there was a lot of dejected players – there was no lack of work ethic but there was a lot of poor errors which we need to put right.
“I told them afterwards that it wasn’t good enough, and it didn’t present the Club in a good light. They can’t produce that sort of display in the second half and expect to get a result.
“There weren’t just harsh words from me, there were harsh words between themselves, and they know they let themselves down today."
As hard as it may seem right now, Petty spoke of how the players must learn from this harsh lesson, in order to not let it happen again.
He added: “Losing is part of their development, we’ve got half a squad which is out of contract and playing for their futures. We’ve gone young players involved in the squad as well so there’s a lot going on.
“The dynamics of the group is changing – we’ve got a few older lads looking towards their future as well. So yes, it’s a testing time but this happens in Under-21s football, and it’s our job as staff to keep them grounded and working."
One factor which is affecting the squad’s ability to pick up points in the clear absence of key players through injury, such as midfield pairing Sammy Braybrooke and Will Alves.
However, City's coach says that each player available must step up to the challenge and work hard to turn things around when they take on Blackburn Rovers on Monday 6 March (7pm GMT kick-off) at LCFC Training Ground.
“It’s been a huge blow to lose the key players to injury like we have,” Petty continued. “There’s four or five that are out and that would have an impact on any team. Character wise they are also missed, as well as their ability on the pitch.
“But on the flip side, it gives an opportunity to others and it’s how they take that opportunity. At this moment in time, we’re not taking these chances and that’s that disappointing thing, but we’ll keep working hard.
“Blackburn Rovers is a must win game now for sure, looking at our previous results, so we need to regroup quickly. It’s at home, against another team struggling for points so we’ll prepare all we can for that.”