Barradell: A Game We'll Learn From
- Leicester City's Under-18s were beaten 2-1 by Fulham on Saturday
- Logan Cooke scored an injury-time winner for the Cottagers
- Kirsten Otchere made it two goals in two games
- We're moving in the right direction, says Adam Barradell
After two heavy defeats to Brighton & Hove Albion and Leeds United, the young Foxes dreamed of a return to their early season form and looked to be on for a solid point against a title challenging Fulham side, until a last minute goal from Logan Cooke stole the points in Seagrave.
Disappointed to not see out what would have been a decent result, the coach believes the lads deserved more from their efforts, but insists they will take the learnings from their defeat.
"It was a pleasing performance and back to the level we were looking at before the Brighton game, but the result was really disappointing," Barradell explained. "I don't think the boys deserved that, but it's a great learning point because both goals were individual mistakes, so it's one where we'll have to brush up on our focus and concentration.
"A disappointing result, but performance wise, I thought it was good. We did some excellent work on building and progressing the ball through Louis Page who got his reward on Monday night, coming on for the Under-21s.
"A pleasing performance, we've done some excellent things over the last few weeks in training, so we're moving in the right direction."
One positive from the night was forward Kirsten Otchere, who netted his second goal in as many games, indicating a potential feature for the Under-21s in the near future.
Discussing individual mistakes that cost Leicester a point at home, Barradell believes that it is only becomes a problem if the team don't learn from it in the coming games.
He added: "Kirsten has had a real good start to the season; scored against Leeds and then scored again on Saturday and also got two against Chelsea so he'll be up for selection in the Under-21s which is what we want to do, and hopefully he'll get that reward.
"It's important they learn from the game, that's what they're for. We want to be competitive and finish as high as we can in the league but it's also important that these little blips, whether that's a lack of confidence or structure, we use to help educate the boys so they can move forward in their development.
"There's no problem with mistakes and conceding goals late on, but it becomes a problem if the boys don't learn from it. We'll review the game and look at the positives but it's also important for their development that they learn from it."
City's next chance of redemption comes this Saturday morning (11am BST kick-off) when they travel to Kent to take on another mid-table side in Crystal Palace, with the coach expecting a good test in U18 Premier League South Division.
"It's always difficult when you go down to Crystal Palace, they always give you a physical test," Barradell continued. "They look to play into their wide players early and move through the pitch from there.
"We're expecting a tough game but like I said, if we can match our performance against Fulham and be a bit more ruthless in both boxes then we're hoping the result comes out on the right side for us this week."