Fleetwood Town’s Under-18s fell to a 2-0 defeat to Tranmere Rovers in the North West Youth Alliance on Saturday.

In another good challenge for the young Cods, who are currently without 10 of their scholars through injury, they showed promise with Under-15s player Liam Roberts being lively throughout, but couldn’t get the result they wanted in Merseyside.

Tranmere opened the scoring early on as they capitalised on a misplaced pass and, even though both Ryan Hand and Brad Arthur did well to get back and cover off most opportunities, the Tranmere midfielder let loose from the edge of the box, with the effort finding it’s way past Rio Cragg.

After that goal, Town seemed to be the better side on the field, dominating the play by putting the home side on the back foot. The best chance fell to Donte Thompson-Prempeh, who came off the bench, as Zane Marsh found him with a cutback, but the forward’s shot from close range was straight at the goalkeeper.

In an unfortunate turn of events, as Town continued to press for the equaliser, Tranmere were able to catch the Cods on a counter-attack to doubled their lead as their right winger slotted home against Cragg, who was making his first start of the league campaign at the weekend.

Two substitutes linked up to create the final chance of the game as Thompson-Prempeh was found by Herman Daha, who cut in from the left and crossed the ball towards the forward, but his header went wide of the target.

The Under-18s are back in league action on Tuesday 21 September as they face Wigan Athletic in the Clarets Cup, before their Youth Alliance Cup clash against Accrington Stanley on Saturday 25 September.

Town XI: Cragg (GK), Batch, Arthur, Thompson, Hand, Bird, Trialist, Morrison, Brown, Jones, Roberts.

Bench: Eastham (GK), Thompson-Prempeh, Marsh, Daha, Butterworth