Even with three teenage trialists in the line-up, the reserves recorded one of their best wins of the season in the Pontins Holidays League thanks to goals from Academy starlets Matthew Hazley and Martin Paterson, plus one from schoolboy Nathan McDonald.

Coach Noel Blake only had two senior players available - Peter Kopteff and Karl Henry - and, as well as those two performed, this was a game where the 'young guns' shone to re-emphasise the quality of the players now emerging from the youth set-up.

Driven on by tigerish midfielder Robert Garrett, the youngsters asserted their early supremacy in the 31^st minute, when left-winger Hazley notched the first goal with a tap-in after being set up by striker Paterson.

Two minutes after the interval Paterson scored himself with a well-struck shot, and then Kopteff was denied a goal when his free-kick struck the woodwork.

But the third goal came in the 68^th minute when lively co-striker McDonald, who scored the equaliser against Oldham in the previous reserve game, headed home a cross from Adam Vass, who impressed in his first game at wing-back.

Trialist goalkeeper Aaron Ratchford, aged 18, who had two outings in the youth team before Chistmas, made two good saves, but was generally untroubled because the defence was so well-marshalled by the rapidly-improving Ryan Shotton.

And the evening was capped for 16-year-old Kevin McDonald, who has recently been released by Blackburn Rovers, when Noel Blake told him after the game that he would be offered a two-year apprentice contract.

City: Ratchford, Garrett, Vass, Anderson (Wilson, 54), Shotton, Curley, Kopteff (Page, 78), Henry, McDonald (Doyle, 87), Paterson, Hazley. Subs (not used): St. Louis-Hamilton, Mullan.