The Northampton Town Football and Education Programme Development squad lost 4-0 at home to Wycombe Wanderers in the NFYL South Central Championship on Wednesday afternoon.
The Cobblers’ opponents were in second place at the start of play.
The visitors started brightly, coming closest in the opening stages when Jonny Vallance tipped a looping cross that was heading on target over the bar.
They opened the scoring before the quarter-of-an-hour mark when a cutback was side-footed home from close range.
And the lead was doubled within two minutes. An attacker was left free at the back post from a corner and Vallance tipped his header onto the bar, but the defence were unable to clear and the ball was smashed in on the line.
Northampton ‘keeper Vallance made a close-range reaction save, a strong one-on-one stop and a diving save at the near post to prevent a Wycombe third around the half-an-hour mark.
His most impressive stop came five minutes before the break when he dived to his right to tip a strike from the edge of the area aiming for the top corner wide.
Vallance was finally beaten for a third time early in the second half, an attacker finishing having been played through on goal.
And Wycombe added a fourth with a low shot that went in off the inside of the post to seal all three points midway through the second period.
Earlier today, the Elite team lost 5-4 at home to Chippenham Town in the South Premier, whilst the Women’s team were 1-0 down at the break away to Barking Abbey in a late South Premier Women kick-off.
Cobblers: Jonny Vallance, Jamie Smith, Nialls Gilmour, Niall Donaghy, Ethan Robinson, Noah Radbourne, Aiden Bell, Sonny Reeves, Elliot Gibbins, Tom Lewis, Jack Anderton-Gill
Substitutes: Kai Hanley, Alistair Osborne, Brandon Ferris, Josh Davey, Charlie Clarke