Gaffer pleased with performance despite defeat...
WALSALL manager, Dean Smith, felt his side were worthy of at least a point from Saturday's frustrating 1-0 home defeat against bogey-team, Bury.Craig Jones scored the game’s only goal on six minutes – consigning Smith’s men to a first league loss of the campaign.
Sam Mantom, Romaine Sawyers and James O’Connor each went close for the hosts, who found Shakers stopper, Rob Lainton, in fine form.
And Smith, whose side slipped to third in League One, admitted he was pleased with his team’s display despite the disappointing outcome.
“It was frustrating,” said Smith.
“You don’t always get what you deserve in life, and today we didn’t get what we deserved. It happens.
“We didn’t start the game particularly well, and they got their noses in front early. It gave them something to hold on to.
“But the first half was as well as we’ve played this season. We moved the ball so well at times that they couldn’t get near us.
“The difference was in the 18-yard box. Their keeper has made some good saves, but I thought our finishing could have been a bit better at times.
“But have I got any complaints about the way we played? No, not at all. They gave everything.”
Defeat to Bury ended a run of four successive league wins for the Saddlers - and Smith is expecting his players to respond quickly to the setback.
“It won’t affect us,” he said. “If we perform like that, we’ll win more games than we’ll lose.
“We had a lot of efforts on goal and our finishing could have been a little bit better.
“At the other end, Craig (MacGillivray) was a spectator for long periods of the game.
“They will feel a bit fortunate to go away with all three points.
“We didn’t have that little bit of luck when we needed it.”
Walsall have now failed to score in each of the last two games – against Morecambe (JPT) and Bury – but Smith isn’t worried.
“It doesn’t concern me at all,” he said.
“We had 11 goals (in the league) before today’s game.
"We had 26 attempts at goal against Morecambe on Tuesday night, and I don’t know how many it was against Bury, but we had a lot.
"I have no worries about scoring goals at this football club.”
The Saddlers’ next match is at home to Doncaster this weekend.