- Leicester City’s Under-21s overcame Fulham courtesy of Logan Briggs’ late strike
- The 1-0 win keeps City in contention to qualify from the Premier League Cup group stage
- Coach Ben Petty reflected on Monday’s crucial victory at LCFC Training Ground
- A busy week awaits with matches in two competitions to come
Logan Briggs’ stunning stoppage-time goal sealed a 1-0 success over Fulham at LCFC Training Ground on Monday evening, keeping hopes alive of qualifying for the knockout stages of the competition.
City’s coach was full of praise for the level of performance produced by the youngsters, who have, at times, struggled to convert those types of displays into positive results this season.
“I thought it was a fantastic game of football in really difficult conditions,” he analysed. “It was blustery and both teams tried to get the ball down and play. Overall, I really felt like we deserved the win.
“We had numerous chances in the first half and two or three golden chances in the second half, and you think it might not come, but leaving it late like that, that's very, very nice. We're not clinical, it’s as simple as that, but it's a fantastic goal to finish it.
“If we could have a real cutting edge about our play, I think you could see tonight there's a really good side out there who play really good football, create good chances and then we just need someone to stick the ball in the net.”
The goalscorer and Silko Thomas were a menace to the Fulham defence on either wing throughout the night and could have made it a more comfortable scoreline on another day. At the other end, a second clean sheet of 2023/24 was very much welcomed.
The 46-year-old explained: “Silko and Logan were pivotal to the way we wanted to play tonight with inverted wingers coming inside. We thought they'd get chances. We thought they'd try and show us inside and we thought we'd get some shots off from that and we did.
“It was just a fantastic piece of finishing at the end from Logan, and he deserved it. I thought he was outstanding on the night.
“Clean sheets are tough to come by, whatever level you play at. I thought Harvey [Godmark-Ford] and Joe [Wormleighton] were outstanding at the back. Mirsad [Ali] came in and did a really good job.
“And Brandon [Cover] at right-back, Ben [Grist] when he came on too, it was a team effort, everyone's worked their socks off out there tonight and it's nice to get a clean sheet and the win.”
The Cottagers, third in Premier League 2, have already booked their place in the next round of the PL Cup. A winner-takes-all showdown will decide the second qualifier from Group G, when City face Brentford at home next Friday. Before then, Southampton are the visitors in PL2 four days earlier.
Petty added: “They (Fulham) are a very, very good side. I've got a lot of admiration for Steve Wigley and Hayden Mullins and his team, the way they try and play football. They gave us a real test tonight and we had to be on our A-game and fortunately for us, we were.
“We've got to build on it. We got Southampton next Monday and then Brentford the following Friday, so two real good home games to look forward to in Seagrave. We have set it up nicely and it's in our own hands now on our home pitch.
“We've already played Brentford. We lost 1-0 and should have got something out of the game. We need to make this place a fortress. It's a fantastic surface to play on and we've got the crowd behind us. Let's look forward to next week.”