Spurs under 18’s versus Leicester City: (match preview)

Matt Wells unbeaten under 18 side will be hoping to build on last weekends emphatic 3-2 victory over Arsenal at Hotspur Way as they go into this weekends league fixture. Top of the table Tottenham Hotspur will be making the trip up to Leicester on Saturday morning to face the ‘ Foxes ’ at their Belvoir Drive training ground. Our under 18’s 3-2 win over Arsenal in last Saturdays north London derby was made even more impressive by the fact that we were missing so many key players to injury. This will again be the case for this Saturdays game, with Brooklyn Lyons-Foster, Malachi Walcott and Phoenix Patterson just some of the players who will miss out. Last season our under 18’s finished one point above Leicester in fourth place in the league table, this season the ‘ Foxes ’ sit healthily in fourth place in the southern division with five wins from ten league matches. Trevor Peake’s side have a historically good record against us in recent seasons and during the 2017/18 campaign we contested three exciting matches with Leicester. The first was a league game at Belvoir Drive in which we lost 4-2, the second was a narrow 2-1 win in the premier league cup. And our most recent meeting with Leicester was an enthralling 4-4 draw at Hotspur Way back in February. Although I must confess that I don’t know a great deal about Leicester’s current pool of players, they seem to be grinding out results and apart from suffering a 7-0 defeat to Chelsea earlier on in the season, no side has managed to beat them by a convincing scoreline so far this season. As you will read at the bottom of the page, I have highlighted one of their star players in versatile midfielder Luke Thomas. However, defenders Dennis Gyamfi and Lukas Husek will be players to watch out for as well as 17 year old Irish midfielder Shane Flynn. Leicester’s youth teams tend to play in a very similar way to their first team, they are a compact and well drilled side, and they are usually very good at set pieces. Trevor Peake’s side also have a pretty strong defence and the ‘ Foxes ’ have only conceded 16 goals from their ten league matches this season. 

After our under 19’s suffered a disappointing 4-2 defeat to Inter Milan in midweek, Matt Wells will be hoping his under 18 side don’t end their exceptional unbeaten record on Saturday morning. Wells side will probably include the likes of star players such as Harvey White, Dilan Markanday and captain Armando Shashoua for tomorrow’s game. However, our under 23’s will be playing Wolfsburg II on Monday in the premier league international cup, and that game could potentially include a couple of the players from the under 18 side. Tomorrow mornings game will be another good test for our high flying side who will have to cope without a number of their best players. However, it won’t matter as this richly talented side have the team spirit and quality to school any  under 18 team in the country. The game against Leicester will be an interesting one and I’ll be fascinated to see how they approach their game with the mighty Tottenham Hotspur. I will be heading up to Leicester first thing tomorrow morning to report on the game. This is our last under 18 league game this of year so I’m hoping that we can end what has been an excellent 2018 on a high. I wish all of Matt Wells lads the very best of of luck for tomorrow’s game against the ‘ Foxes ’ at their Belvoir Drive training ground. My match report will be published sometime on Sunday.

My predicted lineup: (4-2-3-1) Oluwayemi, Okedina, Statham, Binks, Cirkin, A.Shashoua (c), White, Markanday, Richards, Clarke, Parrott. 

Subs from: Kurylowicz, Mukendi, Thorpe, Pochettino, Pedder.

Injured/unavailable: Brooklyn Lyons-Foster, Malachi Walcott, Phoenix Patterson, Enoch Asante. 

Doubtful: Maximus Tainio, J’Neil Bennett.

Previous meeting: 4-4.

My score prediction: Spurs 4-1.

My one to watch: Leicester’s versatile midfielder Luke Thomas who is the ‘ Foxes ’ top scorer at this level this season with three goals. Thomas already has experience playing with Leicester’s development side.