A young City side felt the force of a strong Walsall performance and went down to their first Pontins League defeat of the season.

The Saddlers made a flying start when Matt Fryatt scored from close range after just four minutes.

They could have gone further ahead when Kris Taylor and Taiwo Atieno both hit the crossbar before the break.

City were level on 53 minutes when Ryan Hutchinson crossed for Wayne Teague to net from 12 yards.

But it was a short-lived respite. Ten minutes later a mix-up between Carl Dickinson and Dave Clarke let in Fryatt to score his second.

Jermaine Palmer had a shot tipped over before the home side took control with two goals in ten minutes.

Stefan Oakes netted with a 25-yard free kick after 73 minutes and after Brian Wilson was just off-target with a free-kick from 35 yards Walsall made it 4-1 seven minutes from time when Fryatt hit the post and saw his follow-up cleared off the line before Taylor scored.

City's youngsters staged a late rally and were rewarded when Clint Hill's 87^th minute free-kick was headed on by Andy Wilkinson for Palmer to reduce the arrears.

In a final flurry Wilkinson shot just over and Hutchinson forced a good save from Aaron Kerr.

City: Clarke, Wilson, Dickinson, Denny, Hill, Wilkinson, Graves, Ada, Palmer, Teague (Keogh 82), Hutchinson. Subs: Cartwright, Sanna, Baptist, Warwick.