Leeds United U21s fell to defeat against West Ham on Saturday with some familiar faces involved.
Out-of-favour first-team goalkeeper Illan Meslier earned rare minutes on Saturday as Leeds United Under-21s lost 3-1 against West Ham in Premier League 2.
Meslier has not played a single minute of senior football this season having been dropped for Karl Darlow last April, following a run of high-profile errors during the Championship promotion race. The Frenchman played in a 3-0 defeat against Manchester City U21s earlier this month and suffered a similar fate on Saturday.
All four goals at the LNER Community Stadium came in the final half-hour, with midfielder Ollie Pickles cancelling out a West Ham opener before two late concessions saw Leeds lose 3-1. Forgotten young midfielder Charlie Crew also made his return from injury to start and play 45 minutes.
Crew was due to spend the 2025/26 campaign on loan at League One side Doncaster Rovers, with whom he achieved League Two promotion last season. But the Welshman’s season-long move was cut short in January after a stop-start campaign at the Eco-Power Stadium.
Leeds were expected to sanction a second loan move away for Crew in January but nothing materialised, leaving him in limbo. The 19-year-old had been out injured since returning but got 45 minutes of football under his belt during Saturday’s U21s defeat.
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Speaking after the result, Leeds U21s head coach Scott Gardner told LUTV: "A naive second half - we did the opposite of what we were doing in the first half and caused our own problems. We were punished by an older, more experienced side.
"He [Pickles] has been once of our most consistent players and what I'd like to see from him, maybe a little more leadership in the second half. He is one of the more senior players in the group, and just to lead a little bit around the match plan and that's what we came away from.”
Like their first-team counterparts, Leeds U21s play Sunderland next. On that upcoming clash, Gardner added: "That'll be another physical game against a side that will be older than us and hopefully we can learn a few lessons from that second half."
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