Walsall Under-18s returned to action on Saturday afternoon as they played host to Salford City in their latest EFL Youth Alliance - North West outing of the season.
After slipping to a three-nil defeat at the hands of Stockport County just over a week ago, the Saddlers welcomed the young Ammies to Ray Hall Lane and hoped to be able to secure just their third win of the league campaign.
WALSALL TEAM
Barrett; Angafor, Wilkes, Beckford, Owen, Shaw, Sawyers, Rubio, Toor, Maher, Onabirekhanlen
Substitutes: Cristofaro, Chakki, Uchenna, Francis, Juliff
The match itself was a close-fought affair with goals on either side of the half-time break seeing the spoils shared at the Birmingham County FA's headquarters.
It was the visitors who opened the lead late in the first-half via Ethan Smith, as goalkeeper George Barrett, who recently formed part of the first-team squad as the club continued their search for a second-choice stopper, was unable to keep his sheet clean.
Unperturbed by their one-goal deficit, the young Saddlers were able to drag themselves back into level terms with nine minutes of the second-half gone as Ronan Maher, who recently returned from a Republic of Ireland U19s training camp, slammed the ball home from just outside the box.
A welcome point for Walsall as they look to show signs of improvement over the final months of what has been a difficult Youth Alliance campaign.
FULL-TIME
| WALSALL | 1-1 | SALFORD CITY |
| MAHER (54') | SMITH (40') |
| AT | RAY HALL LANE |