Football League Youth Alliance Cup Area Final defeat...
THE SADDLERS' youth team went down to a 3-1 defeat at Carlisle United in The Football League Youth Alliance Cup Area Final."Our hosts started brightly and put us on the back-foot straight away," said Academy Manager, Neil Woods. "We conceded a sloppy goal within the opening couple of minutes where we were poor individually and collectively.
"For the opening quarter-of-an-hour they dominated us but we grew into it as the game went on and started to play our usual passing game.
"We carved out a few chances but we hit just before the break when the home side won a penalty to double their advantage.
"We never quite flowed in the second half, although we were on top for long periods and created chances.
"It was starting to look like one of those days when we would never score until the final minute saw Reece Flanagan find the net with a sweet strike.
"We pushed on in search of an equaliser into stoppage time, but were caught out right at the death when Carlisle grabbed a third goal on the counter-attack.
"The scoreline flattered our hosts. We put in an overall decent display, to be fair, but were not ruthless enough and it cost us."
WALSALL: Roberts, Kinsella (Ashmore), Christopherou, Preston, Henry, Hobbis, Flanagan, Heath, Reid, Rush (Bakayoko), Griffiths. Subs not used: Dallison, McKenzie, Jones.