Saddlers manager Dean Keates was pleased with the improvement his side showed against Sky Bet Championship side Aston Villa on Tuesday night despite the 4-1 defeat.
Saddlers manager Dean Keates was pleased with the improvement his side showed against Sky Bet Championship side Aston Villa on Tuesday night despite the 4-1 defeat.
A hat-trick from Conor Hourihane and a first half strike from Glenn Whelan meant that Jon Guthrie’s goal counted for nothing in the overall scheme of things but that’s not what Keates was interested in.
Instead, he was keen to take the positives from what was an overall improvement from a young Saddlers side.
He said: “It was a very good work out for us. We were playing against some very good players and you know that you aren’t going to get the ball for long spells of the game but it was all about getting the shape right in this one.
“At the weekend there were too many gaps at times but I was a lot more pleased with how we played and our shape.
“Of course I was disappointed with the result but I was pleased with the areas we got in.
“The pleasing thing for us is that there was an improvement from the weekend against Stoke City and it was all about working on our shape as a group and moving forward and I thought we did that.
“It’s a very young squad, a lot of them are in their developmental stage. We finished with two 17-year-old’s on the pitch and we started with a couple of 18-year-old’s and I thought they did well but all being well we can add a bit more quality and experience to the group.”