ERHUN Oztumer, Mark Little, Jonathan Grounds and Remi Matthews turned out for Wanderers’ Under-23s as they were beaten 2-0 by Birmingham City.

The senior quartet were part of a strong development squad line-up at Leyland who conceded twice in the last three minutes to suffer a third successive defeat.

The Blues had an early penalty shout turned down by the referee when Yoan Zouma slid in on Kyle Hurst after he had nudged the ball ahead.

Wanderers’ best chance of the first half fell to Joe Muscatt, who fired over the bar on the half-volley from 12 yards out after Zouma had flicked on Luca Navarro’s set piece.

Oztumer also started to find his stride, arrowing a shot narrowly wide of the post before the interval with visiting keeper Michael Luyambula at full stretch.

The diminutive playmaker then combined with Muscatt to create a chance for Navarro after the break, only for the young midfielder to get crowded out by a Birmingham defender.

In between, Birmingham also went close to the opening goal as Olly McCoy and Gerald Bajrami combined to feed Kyle McFarlane, who shot into Remi Matthews’ side-netting.

Joe Pritchard almost finished off a fine flowing move from Bolton, his shot deflected narrowly wide, but errors started to creep in at the back and Birmingham finished the game strongly. The Blues should have taken the lead when McFarlane raced through on goal only for Matthews to divert his shot over the bar.

They did not have to wait long, however, as moments later substitute Jude Bellingham got space in the box to fire an angled shot into the bottom corner.

Ronan Darcy had a chance to make immediate amends, lifting a shot over form close range, but Birmingham made the game safe when Welsh Under-19s international Ryan Stirk worked to win possession and drove through to slot the ball past Matthews for the second.