Accrington Stanley Under-18s suffered a 4-2 defeat at the hands of Huddersfield Town despite two goals from Jack Doherty and Gabe Ellis in the EFL Youth Alliance Cup.
As the sun beamed down on PPG Canalside, Huddersfield took an early lead on 16 minutes after breaking through the Reds defence and slotting home from close range.
After conceding, Stanley managed to get more of a foothold in the game, a long-range pass from midfield allowed Doherty to stretch the opposition's defence before showing= his comosure and grabbing his first goal of the season.
Three minutes later Huddersfield regained their lead due to a lapse in concentration in the Stanley defence as the young Terriers slotted past Jack Buckley.
After the half-time interval, Ellis was introduced for Stanley and he immediately found himself in the action.
A well-worked free-kick between Daniel Martin and Warren Sung gave the forward the chance to equalise with his first touch, but he couldn't sort his feet out quick enough to connect with the cross.
On 56 minutes, Ellis made no mistake this time as he broke free of his opposite number, knocking the ball around the goalkeeper before finishing into an empty net.
Failing to make their chances count, Stanley found themselves 4-2 down in the space of three minutes as the Huddersfield captain grabbed his second of the game, with a second-half substitute adding another.
As the game went on the Reds continued to put pressure on the Terrier's defence as a chance fell at the feet of Charlie Ridge who would have been disappointed not to have reduced the deficit.
David Fitzgerald, Youth Development Phase Lead Coach said: "Obviously we're disappointed that we've not picked up a result, I thought we were well in the game throughout.
"Earlier on in the game, they were slightly better than us, but if one or two decisions go our way and better decisions from some of our players, we could've come in at half-time in a better position.
"In the second half I thought we stepped it up, we looked a lot sharper and we were probably the better team especially after we got the equaliser, it looked like we were going to go on and win the game.
"Again, just little decisions in the game and some of us switching off allowed them to go on the counter-attack from one of our attacks, which ended up being a sucker punch for the lads."
Stanley Under-18s return to league action at home to Morecambe on Saturday 31st August as they look to get back to winning ways.