Walsall Under-18s suffered a 4-1 defeat against Rochdale with a disappointing second half display which saw the game run away from them after a strong first half.
A quick start to the game saw both teams have early chances to go ahead.
Walsall had the first chance when Jaiy Leydon floated a cross in from the left hand side. The ball narrowly going over Finn Teesdale's head.
Rochdale had an even better chance a few moments later when centre back Isaac Burgess ghosted into the box and was it not for the number six misjudging the flight of the ball the away side would be in the lead.
The Saddlers took the lead in the 13th minute through a great team move ending in Leydon nestling the ball in the bottom right corner.
Only Nash picked the ball up from deep, switching the ball to the left Leydon was able to wind his way through the travelling defence. The winger combined with Dylan Thomas and found himself through on goal to make the scoreline 1-0.
On the 20 minute mark Rochdale claim close to equalising when Jenson Kilroy lost the flight of the ball leaving Leo Cooper an empty net to slot the ball home.
Stan Straw was able to recover back to the goal line and make a lunging clearance to keep The Saddlers in the lead.
On the half hour mark Rochdale found their way back level through Brooklyn Bailey. The Dale broke through the midfield and Bailey was able to slot the ball into the bottom left corner just out of Kilroy's reach.
On the stroke of half time Walsall came very close to retaking the lead, great work from captain Dylan Thomas to get to the by line, the number eight played the ball back to an arriving Leydon.
The winger struck the ball well but was only able to find the crossbar.
Only five minutes into the second half Rochdale took the lead through Leo Cooper latching onto the end of a low cross from substitute Darren Ehimamiegho.
The Saddlers came close to levelling twice in just a few moments with Thomas and substitute Louie Webb hitting the post.
The pressure wouldn't sustain though and Rochdale stretched their lead to two after Bailey was able to rise quickest to tap the ball into an empty net in a goal line scramble.
The floodgates opened with The Dale putting away their fourth from a wide free kick, taken by Corey Edwards, that found its way through the whole Walsall defence and into the net.
70 minutes in Stan Straw brought down Darren Ehimamiegho awarding Rochdale a penalty.
Bailey stepped up to score his third of the match. Kilroy had different ideas and saved well down to his left.
Despite a promising start Walsall were unable to build on their first half performance as the game got away from them and Rochdale finished the game 4-1 victors.
After the game academy manager Ryan Simmonds shared his thoughts on the game:
"Their right winger that came on was very good, he caused us a lot of problems and we struggled to deal with him, individually and as a team. I'm not going to sugar coat it, it's character, we always miss chances then the other team go and score and once they score they go and score again. Which happens far too often.
Technically and tactically especially in the first half we were very good but second half just wasn't good enough."
Simmonds also said: "Its football, you win and lose games in the box, but if you don't stop the ball going in the goal and you can't score you aren't going to win football matches."
And we speak about defending in the box a lot and a lot of teams are good at blocking shots, but we can't seem to do it, get our bodies in the way of shots and it's disappointing. We just need to do better next time.
Simmonds said: "We had in our mind that Kobe [Wilkes] would only last 45 minutes, but with Cailen [Beckford] dropping out in the warm up changed things. But, we changed our plans and Jackson [Preece] is tactically very good so can play in the middle and both sides and it wasn't an issue for him."