- Leicester City’s Development Squad face Derby County this Sunday
- Moor Farm hosts their first Premier League 2 meeting of 2021/22
- Ben Petty points to the work done on the training pitch as crucial
- The Foxes are unbeaten in five games but have not played since February
The Foxes travel to Moor Farm for a 2pm kick-off at Derby’s training ground, aiming to continue an impressive five-game unbeaten run which has included three victories in Premier League 2 Division 1.
Having no competitive fixtures since the end of February, meanwhile, has allowed time to recover from a busy period of matches across the age groups.
“We’ve done some good work on the training pitch,” City’s coach revealed, speaking to LCFC.com ahead of the game. “As we have now for most of the season, we’ve integrated in with the first team. We’ve managed to get some work in with them and obviously help them with their training.
“It’s been a period of reset really, trying to get the players recovered. One or two players needed an extra bit of time and hopefully now we’ve got a fully fit squad for the coming weeks, when we’ve got not only Under-23s games but important Under-18s games as well. We’re all united and we’re trying to finish the season strong.”
Many of the Rams’ youngsters have been drafted into the first team this season, leading to a difficult campaign for their Under-23s side, who sit bottom of the PL2 table, losing five of their last six games.
Although they have not won since the start of December, just three points separate them from Chelsea, and former Stoke City defender Petty is expecting a difficult task come Sunday afternoon.
The 44-year-old continued: “From Friday, we’ll be looking at how we approach the Derby game, which we know is going to be very tough because they are fighting relegation. We also want to accumulate as many points as we can leading into the end of the season.
“With it being the first time that we’ve played Derby this season, we’ve got to play them twice in a month. There will be a lot on the game. It is a shame it’s not on a stadium pitch, because it’s a great experience for the players, but there’s no doubt it’s going to be a high intensity and hard-fought game.”
Following back-to-back away wins, Leicester will go across the Midlands with confidence and Petty is keen to see a repeat level of performance at both ends of the pitch, stressing the need for further clean sheets after keeping out league leaders Manchester City last time out.
“Ultimately the lads have defended brilliantly over the last six to eight weeks,” he enthused. “It’s how well we can continue this. I think the manager (Brendan Rodgers) said similar things about the first team and how well they have done out of possession over the last few weeks.
“It’s a theme for us heading into the end of the season. I think we’ll need to be on our A-game this week with two away games in five days and we all know how tough it’s going to be.”