ALBION Under-18s put Manchester City's unbeaten record this season under serious threat on Saturday as they were just edged out in a five-goal thriller in FA Premier Academy League (Group C).

The Baggies opened the scoring through Lateef Elford-Alliyu but could not hold on to their lead and went in 1-1 at the break.

A quick-fire double from City in ten second-half minutes put them ahead and, despite a host of chances late on, the Baggies could only muster another consolation strike from the in-form Chris Wood in the dying minutes.

"We put on a very good first-half display, especially on the counter-attack," said Albion coach Michael Appleton.

"We probably should have and could have been one or two goals up at half-time but went in 1-1.

"We were slightly unfortunate to only be drawing.

"In the second-half we were disappointed because we never played particularly well.

"We conceded two goals in a ten-minute spell midway through the second half and lost our concentration and focus after we conceded.

"But we rallied again in the final 15 minutes and scored a goal with a minute to go.

"I think if we'd have pulled a goal back with five minutes to go we may have got something out of the game.

"The most frustrating thing is that I told the boys to try and stay in the game no matter what and when we went 3-1 down it took us ten to 15 minutes to get it out of our system.

"If that hadn't happened I think we'd have created more chances earlier rather than leaving it so late."

ALBION (4-3-3): Allsop; Samuels, Downing, Gayle, Saied; Thorne, Mantom, Sawyers (Brown 65); Wood, Lake-Gaskin, Elford-Alliyu. Subs not used: Waghorn, Lynch, Lovell. 

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