Leeds United are gearing up for their first game back in the Premier League – and will be hoping to fare a little better than the Under-21’s last night.
The Whites take on Liverpool this weekend in a tough game, but the attention was on the Under-21’s as they faced Accrington Stanley in the EFL Trophy.
Summer signing Charlie Allen was in the side, as were the likes of Ethan Kachosa, Owen Bray and Max Dean.
It was a very, very youthful Under-21 side that took to the field at The Wham Stadium, and it didn’t particularly go well for them.
Accrington put out the majority of their first team, and claimed a thumping 7-0 win with loanee Tariq Uwakwe bagging a hat-trick.
The score was 5-0 at half time, with Leeds’ teenagers at least managing to limit the League One side to just two goals after the break.
Boss John Coleman offered huge praise to the Leeds kids, praising them for sticking to their task and showing great character to keep going despite being down.
Coleman added that he saw a number of very impressive technical players, and believed there are going to be some real talents coming through at Elland Road based on last night’s display.
“I must give a big shout out to Leeds, they kept on going right to the end, you know only young boys,” said Coleman. “We can’t govern what they put out, but they showed a great character, great appetite. It could have been an avalanche, they stuck firm and only conceded two in the second half. We were trying to score as many as we could so fair play to them for that, they stuck to the task.”
“They had some really good technical footballers, obviously the age factor and the strength factor was always going to come into it, so it’s unfair to judge these young boys on that, but they showed enough in the game, passing and control to let you know they’re going to be some good players coming through the Leeds academy and going into the 23s and the first team,” he added.
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