Accrington Stanley Youth slipped to a 4-1 defeat at home to Burnley Youth in the North West Youth Alliance League.

Nathan Webb’s early goal gave the Reds the lead but the Clarets hit back with four unanswered goals to claim a comfortable victory.

In the opening 10 minutes, Stanley pinned their opponents back and made their pressure count when Webb opened the scoring with a real poacher’s effort, converting Keenan Quansah’s cutback from a Kealan Steenson corner.

Despite that positive start, two goals in a minute turned the game around for the visiting side.

Burnley striker Khius Metz showed the home defence a clean pair of heels and squared the ball to his strike partner, Joshua Dolling, who made little fuss of slotting the ball into an empty net to level the scores.

Less than a minute later, Metz sprang the offside trap again and finished clinically beyond Christian Evans after previously putting a presentable chance over the bar from 10 yards.

Quansah and Callum Gunner both headed wide from corners as the Reds looked for an equaliser and they thought they had leveled when the rebound from a Jack Hartley effort fell for Tyler Scarth but the striker’s finish into the roof of the net was disallowed for offside.

Burnley themselves had a goal ruled out a couple of minutes later as Metz lobbed Evans from the edge of the area but the visiting striker had strayed beyond the last defender and the linesman’s flag was raised.

In the second half, the Clarets would extend their lead through a fantastic strike from Waqas Azam, the left-back given space to find the top corner of Evans’ goal with a 30-yard howitzer that left the goalkeeper with absolutely no chance.

Scarth had a chance to reduce the deficit when a James Wolfenden cross found the striker in space but the effort lacked conviction.

At the other end, Dolling was on hand to tuck home his second of the game from a corner to take the scoreline to 4-1 and put the game out of Stanley’s reach with 10 minutes remaining.

In the closing moments, Andreas Bianga fired wide from 18 yards for the visitors and Dieter Downey did the same from 25 for Accrington as their Lancashire rivals took the spoils.

Stanley: Evans; Wolfenden, Gunner, Smith, Downey; Quansah, Hickey; Hartley, Steenson; Webb; Scarth.