Walsall Under-17s were in action on Tuesday afternoon as they made their way to Burslem and took on Port Vale in their latest U17 Professional Development League group fixture.Placed in Group I alongside the Valiants, Shrewsbury Town and Sheffield United, the young Saddlers had drawn their opening two games of the competition, and were looking to build upon recent Under-18s results as they took on their near rivals.
After the Under-18s mounted a comeback to defeat Oldham Athletic 4-2 at the weekend, the Saddlers were in commanding form from the off, and went on to take the lead with thirteen minutes played when Canada U16s international Ayden Bills slotted the ball into Theo Morgan's net.
Walsall's second goal of the contest arrived just six minutes later, and came in the form of a powerful effort, unleashed by Jude Worrall, the home side having little chance of stopping his effort.
The home side did all they could to stop the Saddlers building in insurmountable lead as they halved the deficit via Ash Sangarwe with five minutes of the first-half remaining, before going on to level the scores seven minutes into the second half when Joe Bossons struck the ball into the back of the net.
The Saddlers fell behind shortly after the hour mark when Tom Scragg got beyond the Walsall backline to make young stopper Fraser Hamilton-Wright pick the ball, out of his net for a third time.
The game looked to have been put beyond the Saddlers in second-half stoppage time when Ellis Harris was shown a red card, however, the youngsters showed plenty of desire when substitute Zion Tuitt secured a share of the spoils some six minutes into stoppage time. A well-earned point on the road.
FULL-TIME
| PORT VALE | 3-3 | WALSALL |
SANGARWE BOSSONS SCRAGG |
BILLS WORRALL TUITT |
| AT | VALE PARK |