Akwasi Asante scored Blues' goal in the defeat to Leicester.

Blues' under-18 side produced a battling display to give runaway league leaders Leicester City a real run for their money before eventually succumbing to a narrow away defeat at the weekend.

The free-scoring Foxes remain unbeaten in the Barclays Premier Academy League having won 13 of their 15 games this season so it was always going to a supreme test for Steve Spooner's team.

Blues had conceded 15 goals in their previous three league fixtures so a long 90 minutes looked in store as the hosts raced into an early 2-0 lead.

But the visitors showed great resolve to hit back in the second half as Akwasi Asante reduced the deficit with 20 minutes remaining. The Blues number nine showed excellent touch and skill to bring down Brice Ntambwe's fine cross-field ball before running on and rounding the keeper

But, try as they might, Spooner's charges couldn't find an equaliser despite putting their top-of-the-table opponents under some considerable late pressure.

Spooner admitted: "I thought we could have done better on the physical side during the first half but overall our shape was good and in the second half we really went at them. I was pleased with a very spirited and battling performance against a very strong Leicester team.

"We could quite possibly have got something out of it in the end because we dominated the last period of the game, so much so that Leicester kept changing their shape to accommodate us.

"We feared the worst going 2-0 down early on to a Leicester side that score goals for fun but fair play to the players, we responded and gave it 100 per cent."

Nathan Redmond is on England duty tonight.

Spooner reserved particular praise for 15-year-old schoolboy Nathan Redmond, who is tonight representing England under-16s in a friendly against Belgium in Seraing.

Blues' youth coach said: "Nathan put in a tremendous performance during the first half but we took him off at half-time because he was going off that night to join up with the England squad.

"We didn't want to get him injured and we wanted to be fair to him but Nathan was a major thorn in Leicester's side.

"On the whole there were far more positives than negatives and we've got to look to kick that on in a rearranged league game at Watford this Thursday."