I would like to point out that I didn't go to the match so didn't make the obvious mistake of putting Luke Moore in the Walsall team. It is obviously his brother Stefan.
Stoke City's second string slipped to a disappointing 3-0 defeat against Walsall on a bitterly cold evening at The Lamb in Tamworth last night.
Goals from Senegal international Alassane N'Dour and former Aston Villa protégé Luke Moore fired the hosts in to a comfortable 2-0 half-time lead, before Charlton Davies secured maximum points late on with a ferocious strike.
With first-team matters firmly in the club's mind ahead of Saturday's crucial Championship trip to Hillsborough, youth-team coach Adrian Pennock was forced to field an inexperienced side, with none of the players involved having ever tasted any senior competitive action.
However, despite the lack of experience it was the Potters who started the brighter of the two sides. Tom Thorley and Nathaniel Wedderburn linked up well, only for 16-year-old striker Warwick Alexander to mistime his shot at goal.
It wasn't long until the hosts mustered their first effort, though, with Ishmael Demontagnac launching an audacious 30-yarder which dipped just over Danzelle St Louis-Hamilton's crossbar.
Disaster struck for City in the eighth minute when the intelligent N'Dour capitalised on a defensive mix-up to scramble the ball past the City stopper to give the Saddlers an early lead.
Things got even worse shortly after, as former Port Vale loanee Moore drilled the ball expertly in to the bottom corner after latching on to David McDermott's pin-point long ball forward.
Pennock's side had their backs against the wall, and it was only a superb St Louis-Hamilton save which kept the scoreline down to two right on the stroke of half-time.
City came out of the half-time interval with something to prove and they didn't disappoint. An obvious half-time speaking to from the boss gave the side a fresh look about them, and the deficit was almost halved within two minutes of the restart.
First, Alexander saw his rasping effort fly just past the post, before Jimmy Phillips curled a 25-yard free kick agonisingly in to the side-netting.
The energetic Louis Moult capitalised on a poor back-pass, but fired his effort straight at Rene Gilmartin, before the Walsall keeper pounced to smother the ball from under the feet of the fast approaching Alexander.
All City's hard work was in vain, as Davies caught hold of a beauty from 25 yards, which flew past St Louis-Hamilton and in to the back of the net with just quarter of an hour remaining.
The powerful midfielder almost repeated his earlier strike for the Saddlers in the dying stages. However, his thunderous effort cannoned off the top of the crossbar.
STOKE CITY: St Louis-Hamilton; Cohen, Page, Owens, Vauls (Keys, 46); Phillips, Thorley, Wedderburn, Urwin, Moult, Alexander (Connor, 85). Subs: Diao-Jimanez, Vickers, Harrison.
WALSALL: Gilmartin; Taundry, Smith, Schwarz, Bacchus; McDermott, Charlton Davies, N'Dour, Sansara; Demontagnac (Harris, 87), Moore. Subs: Richard Davies, Craddock, Westlake, Skeldon
