Walsall Under-18s returned to action on Saturday afternoon as they played host to Fleetwood Town Under-18s in their latest EFL Youth Alliance - North West outing of the season.
Arriving at the match on the back of a welcome 5-3 triumph over Port Vale, and a match that saw Piers Juliff, Will Uchenna, Jack Shaw, Tayshen Robinson, and Antonio Cristofaro getting on the scoresheet, the young Saddlers were looking for a repeat performance at Ray Hall Lane.
WALSALL TEAM
Barrett; Wilkes, Angafor, Robinson, Sarvari, Baldwin, Shaw, Sawyers, Maher, Juliff, Uchenna
Substitutes: Jones, Chakki, Lawal-Olumegbon, Poskitt, Cristofaro
Unfortunately for the young Saddlers, they weren't able to replicate their recent win over the Valiants as the visitors made their opportunities count as they dominated the opening forty-five minutes going on to establish a comfortable four-nil lead before the break.
The Fishermen produced a variety of goals, with a penalty, a well-taken free-kick, and a goal from a corner seeing them put Walsall to the sword with Academy boss Rob Williams given plenty of issues to work on during the break.
Though they were unable to get back on level terms Walsall did at least draw the second forty-five as, after the visitors added a fifth goal with twelve-minutes of the game remaining, Ronan Maher showed plenty of composure as he circumnavigated the Fleetwood 'keeper before slipping the ball over the line three-minutes later to get his team on the scoresheet.
The match finished 5-1 to Fleetwood with Walsall's attention now turns to Tuesday's Walsall Senior Cup Semi-Final clash with Chasetown and an opportunity to secure a rare place in the competition's final.
FULL-TIME
WALSALL | 1-5 | FLEETWOOD TOWN |