Albion draw with Leicester in PL2

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Charlie Hanson

2025-01-17T18:07+00:00

Cam Peupion celebrates his fifth goal of the Premier League 2 campaign. 📷 by Paul Hazlewood.

Our men’s under-21s played out a 1-1 draw with Leicester City in Premier League 2 on Friday evening.

Albion were licking their wounds after Monday night’s late defeat to Manchester City, and a match against the mid-table Foxes might have been seen as an ideal game to bounce back.

But it didn’t play out that way in the first half. Charlie Penman put in a terrific block on Sammy Braybrooke’s effort after two minutes before Jake Evans blazed over from Jeremy’s Monga’s pull back.

Marcus Ifill fired over from Cam Peupion's pass. 📷 by Paul Hazlewood.

Henry Cartwright’s 25-yarder was well saved by Hugo Fisher before Jamie Mullins’s thumped effort from the edge of the box was initially spilled by Leicester keeper Harry French, but the stopper was first to the loose ball.

Shannon Ruth’s team looked as if they had found the breakthrough just before 45-minute mark when Mullins’s outrageous turn on halfway took him past three Leicester players. The Irishman played a one-two with Josh Robertson before his shot from the edge of the box was saved, with Caylan Vickers' follow-up to poke home ruled out for offside.

Albion continued to grow into the game in the second half with Marcus Ifill firing over from Cam Peupion’s pass, which Ifill would have wanted to do better from.

Hugo Fisher was denied a cleansheet late on. 📷 by Paul Hazlewood.

Peupion appeared to have come to the rescue though with five minutes to play. Albion pressed Leicester in their own box and it saw the visitors give away possession to the Australian, who took a touch before curling it into the bottom left corner from the edge of the area.

However, Leicester landed a sucker-punch in the 87th minute when a ball over the top evaded Penman and Evans raced onto the ball, slotting into the bottom corner from just inside the box.

Sahil Bashir's drive in the fifth minute of stoppage time was straight at French, but in the end both teams had to settle for a point.

Cam Peupion gets his shot away from the edge of the box. 📷 by Paul Hazlewood.

The Albion team: Fisher, Albarus, Turns, Penman, Mills (Simmonds 74), Peupion, Knight, Mullins (C) (Mackley 61), Ifill (Bashir 80), Robertson (Howell 61), Vickers.