A young Walsall side made up of academy players fell to a 5-2 defeat away at Huddersfield Town in the Central League this afternoon.
Miguel Llera’s side found themselves 2-0 down within 50 minutes but Jayden Campbell’s penalty and a goal from Trialist 2 saw the Saddlers produce a fine comeback to level the game just after the hour mark.
Huddersfield restored their lead two minutes later before they added two further goals in the final 20 minutes to seal the victory.
Academy Manager Llera felt the score was harsh on the Saddlers but admitted a few individual errors cost the team.
“I didn’t think it was a 5-2 game,” said Llera.
“We made a sloppy start in the first 10 minutes, they were moving the ball well and we conceded the first goal and let them play through us too easily without enough aggression and energy.
“After that we started to grow into the game and we started to press higher, show more aggression and we were growing and growing into the game and managing them really well so I was pleased with what I saw after the first 10 minutes.
“In the second half, their second goal was a really sloppy individual mistake but we had a great reaction to come back into the game and bring it back to 2-2. We were on top and could have scored a third but we conceded the third and fourth after a couple of individual mistakes.
“In general terms, it was a good performance and that’s the important thing for me. The goals were individual mistakes and that’s why we’re disappointed.”
Saddlers team: Trialist 1; Foulkes, Lynch, Sharp, Zona, Worley, Campbell, Stephens, Trialist 2 (T. Parker), Mukadam, Taylor (Allamby-John).
Subs not used: J. Perry, Wollaston, Simcox