An early blitz saw Fleetwood Town beat Aston Villa Under-21s in the EFL Trophy at Highbury on Tuesday night.
Harvey Saunders netted a hat-trick in the first 15 minutes as the League One side swarmed the Young Lions.
Villa improved as the game went on, but they had goalkeeper Akos Onodi to thank for a superb save to deny Saunders a fourth from the penalty spot.
Mark Delaney’s team will now regroup ahead of their final group game against Carlisle United next month.
After reaching the play-offs last season, Fleetwood have struggled early in the current campaign, losing three of their four league matches.
But Joey Barton’s side made a lightning fast start on Tuesday night, with barely two minutes on the clock when Saunders capitalised on a mix-up between Dominic Revan and Onodi to roll the ball into an empty net.
The striker doubled his tally a couple of minutes later, pouncing on Mungo Bridge’s stray pass and slamming past the Villa ‘keeper.
Jayson Leutweiler denied DJ Sturridge and Aaron Ramsey at the other end before Saunders struck again to complete his hat-trick within 15 minutes, heading Ryal Rydel’s cross home.
After the early action there was little to report as the rest of the first half played out with the home side content to control possession.
Delaney’s young side emerged from the half-time interval with renewed vigour and they began to ask more questions of Fleetwood, with Louie Barry and Seb Revan linking up well down the left-hand side.
Paul Appiah replaced Jake Walker after 70 minutes, and the defender’s first action was to upend Cian Hayes in the penalty area.
Sniffing his fourth of the evening Saunders stepped up, but Onodi guessed right and made a fine stop.
As the game moved into the final 15 minutes Villa almost snatched a goal back. A short corner was worked into Barry, whose fierce drive was tipped over by Leutwiler.
Louie Barry felt there were positives to take from Aston Villa’s 3-0 defeat against Fleetwood Town.
A young Villa side found it tough going against the League One team, falling three goals behind in the first 15 minutes.
But Barry took heart from the character and resilience the Young Lions showed in the rest of the match.
He said: “We went down three goals early on, but we stayed together.
“We had some chances as well and if we’d have taken them it might have been a different result.
“We’re a young team and we’re getting better as the weeks go by.
“In the second half we came out, pressed them and didn’t stop working. It would be so easy to drop your heads after going 3-0 down after 15 minutes but we didn’t.”
Mark Delaney’s team finish their group stage schedule with a game against Carlisle United next month, and Barry feels the competition is serving them well - despite losing both games so far.
He said: "In the Premier League 2 we’re playing against young players, so this is a good step-up and challenge to play against a men’s team.
“I think we’re just as good as them, but we didn’t play our best in the first 15 minutes. You get punished for that.”
Aston Villa: Onodi, S.Revan, Bridge, D.Revan, Walker (Appiah 70'), A.Ramsey, J.Ramsey, Chukwuemeka, Barry (Farr 80'), Wright, Sturridge (Young 77').
Subs not used: Marschall, Tait, H.Sohna, Raikhy.
