‘The Way They Tried To Hurt Us’ – Boss Tips Hat To Young Leeds United Talents | OneFootball

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Fleetwood Town boss Pete Wild has lauded Leeds United Under-21s despite the young Whites losing the EFL Trophy game 4-0, offering a vote of confidence to the talents.

Leeds have a reputation for producing talented young players from their academy over the years, and they won the National League Cup last year, despite competing against senior teams.

One Leeds star suggested that facing senior sides brought out the ‘street mentality’ in the players.

On Tuesday night, though, they could not compete to the full against League Two side Fleetwood Town, who dislodged Scott Gardner’s side very comfortably at Highbury.

Leeds Under-21s lost the EFL Trophy group stage game 4-0, but the performance from the young Whites did not fail to impress Wild.

The Cod Army boss mentioned that Leeds went extremely young against his side, as the likes of Harry Gray were not part of the squad.

Wild, though, hailed the way Leeds moved the ball around the pitch, lauding them for how they wanted to hurt his side throughout the game.

“We went after a really young Leeds team; they were really young tonight, Leeds”, the Cod Army manager told Fleetwood TV (0:57) after the game.

“And I thought the movements they had and the way they tried to hurt us was excellent.”

Wild was also asked about the significance of the victory against Leeds Under-21s, as they are not a senior team, and the Fleetwood boss talked up the opposition as he is convinced that a lot of the young Whites will have glittering careers.

“They [Leeds] have some top young players and I have no doubts that quite a lot of them will have top careers.”

“And hopefully, it was a good experience for them tonight, regarding what professional football is like, what it is like in the league for them.

“It has a lots of benefits this competition, that being one of them tonight”, Wild added.

The Fleetwood boss made no secret pre-match about a sub-plot to the game as he indicated towards checking up on the Leeds players with a view to future signings.