Oldham Athletic U18 3-1 Walsall U18
Tanya Blakey

This was another good League result for the young Latics following on from last week's victory against Stockport.

Overall, the game was a scrappy affair with both teams trying to play the right way, but real quality football was at a premium. Latics were on the front foot for most of the first half without creating any real goalscoring opportunities, but when they did they again seemed to lack that killer instinct in the final third.

Defensively, Latics seemed sound and kept the lively Walsall attack at bay and restricted them to long-range efforts. The breakthrough for Latics came right on the stroke of half-time when a good set piece move resulted in a Chris Rowney delivery being flicked home by Laquan Esdaille-Biney.

Latics came out much brighter in the second half and with the lively Brooke up front were beginning to cause the Walsall backline many more problems. It therefore came as no surprise when Brooke was released and he finished well across the goalkeeper from 16 yards.

To be fair, Walsall's response was very good and disappointingly for the Latics a long hopeful ball caught the backline very square and the Walsall striker fired home from a narrow angle. Midway through the second half, an unsavoury incident led to a Walsall player and Latics Liam Dawson being sent from the field of play after a midfield confrontation.

Walsall had a great opportunity to equalise with 1-0 minutes to go but Josh Ollerenshaw made an excellent one-on-one save to keep the Latics ahead. Some fine individual play by Brooke then led to him firing home Latics third and decisive goal with 5 minutes to play.

Latics' staff were pleased with the result but certainly felt the team had played better this season and actually lost games.

It must be said that they feel the young players in the team are beginning to look tired after a long, hard season in which the majority of the first years and schoolboys have had to play in nearly all the Youth Team games this term.

However, they also feel that this will stand them in good stead for next season's campaign.