Walsall beaten by Charlton...
A frustrated Jon Whitney was left to rue his side’s defending after Walsall were beaten 2-1 at home to Charlton.Nicky Ajose put the Addicks ahead on the stroke of half-time before Kieron Morris equalised on 72 minutes with a low strike.
But the visitors restored their lead just two minutes later, as Josh Magennis squared for Ajose to bundle home from close range, for what proved to be the winner.
“I’m frustrated with the manner of the second goal,” said Whitney afterwards.
“When you get yourself back into a game against a team like Charlton, at home, you should be solid then and maybe step forward and try to win the game. That’s the type of team we are.
“It was too easy to score the second goal. We’re going to look at it, analyse it, but I’m not happy with the defending for the second goal – I thought it was too easy.
“I can’t keep coming in here every week and saying one player was the difference between the two teams because if that happens every week I’ll be out of a job.
“At 2-1, I don’t think we really believed we were going to get back into it, which is not good enough for me.
“We’re going to have a good look at it and on Tuesday I want to see who wants to come in and start fighting for some points because we can’t just allow it to happen.
“It’s too easy for teams to score against us as the moment which isn’t nice, especially for me as an ex defender, and we will see what we have to do to improve that.”
Although Whitney felt there were plenty of positives to take from the performance, he believes the Saddlers' in-game management must get better.
“Of course I can sit here and make excuses all night but I’m not because I trust my players,” he added.
“I think Jason (McCarthy) is a revelation at right-back, Joe (Edwards) did really well and George (Dobson) was switching it.
“I thought the game plan was working really well and we were creating some good chances. Ossy (Isaiah Osbourne) was a threat, Simeon (Jackson) and Andreas (Makris) were a threat as well, so it was working really well.
“But it’s the manner of the goals that is disappointing and I think our in-game management needs to be better.
“I need the players to manage themselves a bit more – in-game management is what I’m trying to push to them.
“I need to see that they can handle adversity when it happens and not feel sorry for ourselves when we fall 2-1 behind.
“We’ve got a week now to get our heads round it because we need to get some points on the board.”