Walsall Academy Manager Miguel Llera was disappointed with his team’s performance in their 3-0 FA Youth Cup second round defeat to Fleetwood Town on Friday night.
The Saddlers found themselves 2-0 down at half-time after Joe Collins netted from close range before Covy Smith struck from the penalty spot.
Walsall asked more questions in the second half and Saddlers goalkeeper Lewis Walker saved a penalty but Smith added a third to seal Fleetwood’s passage to the next round with a smart finish to score his brace.
Llera hopes his players will learn from the defeat after he admitted his team didn’t perform well enough on the night.
“I was really disappointed with the performance,” he said. “The week before we showed strong character and put in a strong performance so I was very confident with how the team has been working in the last 10 days to play in the best that they can do.
“We conceded too many individual mistakes and we were really poor in possession.
“The game started equally. Obviously, they were a team who were capable of moving the ball but my disappointment was mentally and the psychological part of the game.
“Too many players were performing below the standard. I think they had in mind what happened last year. We are a much better team than we were last year and we were really confident about the game.
“We were capable of performing well six days before but performed extremely poor six days after so that’s why I was disappointed.
“Hopefully they do learn from it. We’re in a teaching environment so that’s we try to do, learn from the mistakes. It was a great chance for the lads to carry on in the competition.”