Wolves Academy under-18s were denied a point at highflying Sunderland by a last minute winner in yesterday's game on Wearside.
Wolves hit back from Ryan Noble's early goal to equalise through Louis Harris and levelled for a second time thanks to Fungandel Moke after Liam Noble had restored Sunderland's lead.
But Dan Madden headed home in the second minute of injury time to put Sunderland 14 points clear at the top of Academy Group D.
"We're at a stage of the season now where we're playing four games in a matter of 11 games," said Wolves' under-18s coach John Perkins.
"That can get a bit hectic for young players, particularly the schoolboys, so we're trying to change things around a little bit.
"We had five hours on the road to get to Sunderland which is always a hard game, and we walked into some pretty windy conditions as well!
"We'd try to warn the lads that they'd come at us early on but in the ninth minute we didn't defend a corner properly and they went in front.
"After that setback we recovered and came more into the game with Danny Batth doing really well at the back and Jack Price (pictured) impressive again.
"Sam Winnall then took a free kick from 20 yards out and schoolboy Louis Harris netted with a header.
"We were better after the break with Sam more prominent and Fungandel Moke getting hold of things in the middle of the park.
"But after the hour mark there was a goalmouth scramble and they scored into the bottom corner.
"We managed to come back again and after Paul McCone's throw-in was cleared Moke scored with an overhead kick into the top corner.
"Sunderland came back again and after we'd conceded a corner we didn't deal with it and they got the winner in what was the second minute of injury time."
The game left John with mixed feelings given Wolves had come so close to snatching a point.
"It was a hard game and Sunderland look like winning their section of the league but the lads had done so well that they'd got back into the game twice," he added.
"It was an absolute sickener to lose so late on but it's something the players will learn from."
Next up in the current glut of fixtures is another trip to the North East, to face Newcastle on Saturday.
