After a “difficult” start to the season, coach Ben Petty was pleased to see his Leicester City Under-21 team win the EFL Trophy against senior opposition.
On Tuesday night at Prenton Park, City defeated League Two team Tranmere Rovers 1-0. The game’s lone goal was scored in the ninth minute by Chelsea summer addition Silko Thomas, a winger.
It was a satisfying effort and outcome for Petty, whose squad has struggled in Premier League 2 so far this season and lost a previous EFL Trophy game to Wigan Athletic’s first team by a score of 7-1. But following their most recent league game, a 3-1 victory away at Fulham, and the achievement
Petty expressed his satisfaction with the Tranmere victory on the club’s official website: “It’s really satisfying. We have encountered challenges over the past few weeks, but the lads are beginning to grasp the situation. In the most recent PL2 match, we lost to Fulham despite playing well on the road.
This was yet another instance of a classic away performance in which we battled valiantly at times against a strong opponent. They did hit the post a few times, but we had a goal disallowed and wasted breakaway opportunities.
“I suppose I’ll take that and a clean sheet away from home, even if there were a lot of chances in the game and I’m surprised it only ended 1-0. I think the guys played pretty well, and they stayed true to the game plan.
“We tried our best to include the wide guys in the game, and we succeeded. Ben (Grist) and Tom (Wilson-Brown) at the back really held the group together well with Brad (Young) behind them, without naming specific players. It provided us with a fairly stable base on which to play football.
After two rounds of competition, City is in third place in Group D, but they still have a chance to advance to the knockout rounds if they defeat Fleetwood Town at Highbury Stadium on Tuesday, November 7. Prior to that, they have two more Premier League 2 games: on Friday, October 27, they travel to Chelsea, and on Friday, November 3, they play Newcastle United at Seagrave.
This season, PL2 is quite powerful, according to Petty. Several teams are
