Fleetwood Town 3 Aston Villa U21s 0: Striker's quickfire hat-trick hands Town victory

The striker netted all three goals in the early stages at Highbury, though he did miss a penalty in the second half.

It was only a night for positives though ahead of Town’s League One clash with Hull City on Friday.

Unsurprisingly, Town head coach Joey Barton freshened up his team with 10 changes from Saturday’s defeat at Rochdale.

A number of youngsters were handed their chance to shine with first senior starts for Laurence Smith and Shayden Morris, while the more experienced Jayson Leutwiler replaced Alex Cairns in goal.

It proved to be an eventful opening few minutes at Highbury.

Villa's kids, having conceded eight in their opening group fixture at Sunderland, found themselves two behind after only five minutes.

Saunders, who notched at Rochdale and scored twice in Town’s opening Trophy win at Carlisle United, latched onto Ryan Rydel’s hopeful through ball before smashing past Akos Onodi.

The 23-year-old then made it 2-0 after five minutes, pouncing on Mungo Bridge’s awful attempted pass before drilling home.

At the other end, Leutwiler had been forced into action to thwart Aaron Ramsey and DJ Sturridge, but the game was only 15 minutes old when Saunders completed his hat-trick with a header from Rydel’s cross.

With skipper Paul Coutts pulling the strings in midfield, Villa were being put to the sword and had no answers.

It was almost four on the half-hour when Saunders was fouled on the edge of the box but Mark Duffy’s curling free-kick narrowly cleared the crossbar.

Barton’s youngsters were making the most of their big opportunity but were unable to add to their tally before the interval.

Town began the second half almost as impressively as the first, knocking the ball around confidently.

They should have added a fourth goal in the 50th minute when Ged Garner fired just over the top from Morris’ cross.

Garner nodded just off target as the hosts maintained their dominance with Villa’s young guns harried and pressured at almost every turn.

They should have shipped a fourth goal with 20 minutes left when substitute Cian Hayes was tripped by Paul Appiah.

However, Saunders’ halo slipped slightly as he saw his spot-kick saved by Onodi, who then beat away the same player’s piledriver late on.

Fleetwood Town: Leutwiler, Smith, Stubbs, Holgate, Rydel, Matete, Coutts (Johnston 57), Saunders, Duffy, Morris (Hayes 69), Garner (Raffie 69). Subs not used: Cairns, Hill, Takpe, Barratt.

Aston Villa: Onodi, Bridge, J Ramsey, Revan, Walker (Appiah 70), Wright, Sturridge (Youn, 77), Chukwuemeka, Barry (Farr 80), Ramsey, Raven. Subs not used: Marshall, Tait, Sonha, Raikhy.

Referee: Peter Wright.