Stanley Academy Manager John Townson praised the character of his players after their latest win in the Youth Alliance.

The young Reds came back from 1-0 down to win 3-1 against Walsall thanks to two goals from Max Hazeldine and one from Nathan Webb.

It came just days after they recovered from 2-1 down to draw with Port Vale much to the delight of Townson.

“All three goals were very good,” he said. “There were lots of positives to take too. Jack Hartley was scoring a lot of goals a while ago and though he’s not been on the scoresheet in a while he’s made three of the last four or five goals that we’ve scored.

“Max has shown us what he can do. He’s got that raw pace, power and ability to make something happen and Webby’s popped up again and it’s four in five for him now.

“It was a good performance and I was very pleased with the players. The goals were good and the reaction to going behind was good. I think for the most part in the second part they didn’t really threaten us. They put some pressure on but I can’t remember a shot on goal.

“We didn’t get sucked into their game like we did in the cup game with Oldham and that shows that in the last week the lads have found out how to deal with it when they come up against different styles.

“You can’t get dragged into their game, you have to concentrate on yourselves and I think we did that and got the ball down and that allowed us to stop them putting pressure on us as has happened in previous weeks.”

The under 18’s are in action again on Thursday when they host Tranmere and Townson is impressed with how his players are handling the workload.

“I think that was our fourth game in nine days and the players are dealing with it well,” he concluded. “It’s always easier to deal with a busy schedule when you’re playing well and enjoying it but I can’t rule out making changes. Sometimes you have to freshen it up a bit but it’s hard to do that when the players you are picking are doing so well.”