IT WAS a bad day for the table-topping Saddlers' youngsters on Monday as they slipped to a heavy 4-1 defeat at Burnley in a game which saw us forced to play with ten men for 75 minutes.

"The sending off after 14 minutes put us in a precarious position," admitted Head of Youth, Mick Halsall. "It was rather unfair as our boy handled inside the area but the ball was going away from goal.

"The resulting penalty was saved by Joel Skeldon and this gave us the chance to recover, but within ten minutes we had conceded as a result of some defensive naivety. Then just before the break we found ourselves two goals down and this gave us a real mountain to climb for the second period.

"We managed to get back into it on 55 minutes when Joe Howes fired home with a good finish, but a lack of understanding, albeit with ten men, saw us concede two sloppy goals to kill the game off.

"Having to play with ten men for 75 minutes certainly told on us and it showed that some of our boys need to do work on the mental side of their game.

"It was too easy to blame the inconsistent referee as our players took the easy option instead of trying to apply themselves 100%."

WALSALL: Skeldon, Silver, Woollaston, D. Schwarz, Bacchus, Lowe (Travis), Atkins (Geddes), R. Davies, Ryan, Craddock, Grigg (Howes).