Gray and Leshabela win the plaudits in Premier League 2 victory

DEMARAI Gray scored twice in front of a watching Brendan Rodgers to earn a 2-1 victory for Leicester City’s Under-23s over West Ham on Monday night.

The winger, who has not even made the bench in the Premier League this season, put City into a half-time lead despite Vontae Daley-Campbell receiving a straight red card for a lunge 10 minutes in.

A penalty levelled proceedings before Gray struck again a few minutes before full-time, securing what was a third straight victory for City’s development squad.

With his only previous pitch-time coming in the 2-0 Carabao Cup defeat to Arsenal in September, Gray was given an opportunity to keep up his fitness with a run-out alongside Islam Slimani, who has also only made a solitary first-team outing, and Ricardo Pereira, back after eight months out with a knee problem.

An early reshuffle was required when England Under-20 international Daley-Campbell, playing out of position at centreback to accommodate Ricardo, failed to heed warnings from the referee over strong challenges and dived in a tad recklessly.

But City still had the better of the first half, and took the lead when Khanya Leshabela carried the ball through the midfield and slotted between the defence for the sprinting Gray, who darted beyond the back-line and finished between the goalkeeper’s legs.

West Ham fought back in the second half, Oladapo Afolayan scoring from the spot after City goalkeeper Jakub Stolarczyk rushed out and brought down Daniel Chesters.

The Hammers, bottom of the Premier League 2 table, looked most likely to win for large periods, and City were thankful for the woodwork keeping the scores level, before Leshabela found Gray again, the winger skipping past his man and firing into the corner.

Gray and Leshabela both earned praise from Under-23s boss Steve Beaglehole.

He said: “I’m delighted with the result. So early in the game to have one sent off when we had three senior players who were really playing to get some game-time.

“West Ham will play a lot worse than that and win, we’ll play a lot better than that and lose, that’s football.

“Demarai scored both goals, and showed his quality. Khanya Leshabela I thought was excellent, he made both goals and that’s great on top of the other side of the game: winning the ball, closing down, work-rate, tracking runners.”