Under-23s fall to Foxes defeat at Stevenage

Second-half goals from Callum Wright and George Hirst consigned our Under-23s to a 2-0 defeat at home to Leicester City on Friday evening.

Back at Stevenage's Lamex Stadium for the first time this season and looking to build on a positive penalty shootout win against Colchester United in the Leasing.com Trophy last time out, we couldn't muster enough of a goal threat over the 90 minutes in what was a game of few clear-cut chances.

Leicester edged ahead shortly after half-time when our defence was caught napping after George Thomas' free-kick hit the post and Callum Wright slid home the loose ball, before centre-forward George Hirst made sure with six minutes left, converting Josh Eppiah's cut-back after Tariq Hinds was unfortunate to lose a 50-50 challenge out on the touchline.

Paris Maghoma's back-post effort was somehow kept out in added time and Viktor Johansson's clean sheet remained intact as we suffered our third consecutive Premier League 2 defeat. We're now without a win in our last six in the division after such a bright start to the campaign.

Under-23s Coach Wayne Burnett made two changes from the side that lined up at Colchester 10 days ago with Maghoma coming into midfield and Phoenix Patterson deployed on the right. The latter teased a low shot wide and then saw a deflected attempt saved at his near post by Leicester goalkeeper Johansson inside the first quarter-of-an-hour but the Foxes made use of the whole pitch to keep the ball away from us and squandered a couple of chances as the first half went on, Admiral Muskwe, Hirst and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall all failing to test Jonathan De Bie with shots off-target.

Luis Binks was commanding at centre-back once again for us, getting on the end of several balls into our area, while in attack, centre-forward Rodel Richards saw his opportunistic close-range strike charged down before defender Malachi Fagan-Walcott roamed forward and produced a smart save from Johansson with a deflected shot from 18 yards. Binks was there again with a vital sliding challenge to deny Muskwe just before the break but, in truth, neither side was able to mount sustained pressure and after a brave save from De Bie on his line as Muskwe came barrelling towards him it was Leicester who edged ahead nine minutes into the second period. Thomas' free-kick cannoned back off the post but the Foxes reacted quickest and Wright's low shot slithered into the bottom corner, almost in slow motion.

Armando Shashoua and Shilow Tracey nearly hit back for us but it needed strong hands from De Bie to keep out Luke Thomas' fierce drive from the left angle on 66 minutes. Then came Leicester's second to put the game to bed. Left-back Hinds went in for a crunching challenge close to the touchline and ended up off the pitch - sadly for him, the ball didn't and substitute Eppiah cut back for Hirst to score from a central position. We might have grabbed a consolation right at the end when Maghoma lunged in to steer Dilan Markanday's cross on target at the back post, but the ball was cleared off the line.

Key moment

The first goal was always going to be important after the way the first 45 minutes panned out and it was Leicester who got it. When George Thomas' set-piece hit the post, it seemed to catch everyone in the box off-guard and it was Wright who pounced on the chance to put his side ahead. From there, we couldn't respond.

Coach's view

Wayne Burnett was honest in his assessment after the game: "We didn't deserve to win - we weren't competitive enough, we lacked physicality, we lacked any threat and Leicester deserved to win," he said. "It's a different team to Colchester, they've got some decent players but we didn't have enough people who performed this evening. It's disappointing but I can't have any complaints with the result. They scored a goal following a set-piece, I don't know why we didn't react but it was coming. They were starting to threaten our goal, we weren't really threatening theirs, it was a disappointing goal to concede but we didn't really play anywhere near well enough as a team or as individuals. We just have to get back to basics and be better with our game. The only way we're going to put this right is to continue to work."

Match data

Goals: Leicester - Wright 54, Hirst 84.

Yellow cards: Spurs - Fagan-Walcott 41, Maghoma 79, Oakley-Boothe 89; Leicester - L Thomas 65.

Referee: Lloyd Wood.

Venue: Lamex Stadium, Stevenage.

Weather: Partly cloudy, light breeze, 11 degrees.

Attendance: 615.