Walsall Head Coach Matt Taylor was frustrated after his team’s defeat to Newport County on Saturday.
The Saddlers looked to be heading to a draw after Tyrese Shade cancelled out Mickey Demetriou’s opener on the stroke of half-time but James Clarke headed in the winner for the hosts in the 87th minute.
Taylor was disappointed with the way his side defended their box and felt the team lacked quality in the final third.
“If there’s a flaw in our performance it’s that we didn’t take our chances when we created them,” Taylor said.
“We’ve hit the bar at the end, we got into some fantastic positions and then it’s that final detail whether it’s a cross, whether it’s a cut back or the quality when we got in areas in the final third wasn’t good enough overall and if you do that, you’re always wary that Newport are dangerous.
“We knew they’d be a team that want to put the ball in the box, both their goals have come from that and from my perspective that’s not good enough, we need to compete better. Saying that, I thought we were so dominant in the second half so it’s a difficult one for me to accept at the moment.
“We’ll remove the emotion from it and feedback to the players our thoughts as coaches and now we need to make sure we have a great training week going into the next game against Bristol Rovers.”
One standout performer for the Saddlers was goalkeeper Carl Rushworth who saved a penalty moments before Shade’s equaliser as well as handful of other fine stops in the second half and Taylor felt he was unfortunate to be on the losing team.
“Ironically with his feet he probably wasn’t as good as he has been but in terms of keeping the ball out of the net, he was excellent again and he’ll be one of the players who will be disappointed to be on the losing team.”
The Saddlers now turn their attention to Saturday’s clash with Bristol Rovers at the Banks’s Stadium.
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