- Leicester City’s Development Squad tackle Barrow in the Papa John’s Trophy on Tuesday
- The Foxes drew 3-3 with Arsenal in PL2 on Saturday to go three games unbeaten
- Coach Ben Petty provided an insight into City’s preparations for the trip to Barrow
- It will be a stern test to face an established EFL side away from home, Petty believes
City’s youngsters came away with a 3-3 draw from Saturday’s meeting with Arsenal Under-23s, despite the Gunners heading into the contest at the summit of the Premier League 2 Division 1 table.
Goals from Terell Pennant, Tawanda Maswanhise and Ben Nelson looked to have wrapped up three points for the travelling Foxes, but for an extraordinary late comeback from the hosts.
Though naturally disappointed to surrender a three-goal lead so late on, Petty felt there were a lot of positives to take from the performance in the capital, despite the end result.
It extended the team’s unbeaten run to three matches, as Leicester rose up to eighth in the PL2 standings.
“We played so well for 90 minutes,” he reflected to LCFC.com. “It was a really harsh lesson conceding three goals in seven minutes at the end. Overall, the level of performance was fantastic, and I was delighted with the efforts of the lads.
“Obviously, the key thing now is that we never let that happen again and we learn from the one or two silly mistakes that we made. We have to put into context that the side is very young still and we are a bit naïve at times.
“From a defensive side, we were excellent until the final seven minutes, which was very, very poor. I wasn’t too harsh on the players, but they need to learn from it.
“I thought Tawanda [Maswanhise] and Terell [Pennant] gave us a lot more threat in the game. We created a lot more chances in the game and we should have had more actually. If we had scored four or five, I don’t think Arsenal could have had too many complaints, so from an attacking side, I was delighted.
“When we came off after a heavy defeat at Man City, we knew the next three games against Chelsea, West Ham and Arsenal were going to be really tough and I think anyone who has watched the three games would say we were the better side in all three.
“It goes to show how far the lads have come in a short space of time and overall, we’re really pleased with the progress.”
Quickly shifting attention onto Tuesday evening’s meeting with Sky Bet League 2 side Barrow, the 44-year-old believes the fixture presents a good opportunity to test themselves against senior opposition.
Leicester are now unable to qualify for the knockout stages of the Papa John’s Trophy following defeats against Fleetwood Town and Accrington Stanley and will shuffle the pack for the trip to Holker Street.
“We’ve changed our focus on the game,” City’s coach revealed ahead of the 7:45pm GMT kick-off. “We’ve lost three or four of our best players due to international duty. It’s an opportunity for some of the fringe players and the lads that haven’t been starting to stake a claim for the starting XI, which is great to give them the opportunity.
“Obviously we can’t qualify, but they are always big games in this competition and it’s a game that we are taking very seriously. The other challenge that we face with Barrow is the travel, it’s a very long way.
“This time we are going to be playing against a side with a philosophy to play football from the back, like ours. Whereas we came up against a massive physical challenge with Fleetwood and Accrington, we’ve also got a football challenge tomorrow as well.
“We’ve got to cope with both. It’s a young and vibrant team, we’ve got lots of energy and pace. We’ve got a few fresh faces, so we’re absolutely looking forward to it.”