Walsall beaten at Barnsley...
Head coach Jon Whitney says his Walsall players owe the fans a performance against Barnsley in Thursday’s play-off semi-final second leg.The Saddlers’ promotion dreams suffered a crushing blow after a 3-0 first-leg defeat at Oakwell on Saturday.
Jason Demetriou’s own goal put the Tykes ahead on the stoke of half-time before Sam Winnall’s quick-fire second-half brace secured a comprehensive win.
“I think even if I didn’t say anything you’d know how I was feeling,” said Whitney afterwards.
“I thought the first half was quite even and we didn’t deserve to go in a goal down. At 1-0, if you can keep it at that, then you’re still in the tie.
“The next goal was going to be really big and they got it. But I wasn’t happy with the way we dealt with it.
“We’d spoken for the previous three or four days about game management. In the play-offs it’s about how you manage going behind and not getting frustrated about not getting back into it too quickly.
“I will look at it but it’s not a Bradford, I’m not going to come in and rip heads off.
“We owe the fans something on Tuesday now. What a contrast to Port Vale, when we were on top of the world.
“Sometimes in life you get smacked in the teeth and we’ve been smacked in the teeth by Barnsley.
“You can either hide away now or give up for the summer, or you can come and show the fans a bit of pride on Thursday.”