Dean Keates: Walsall must address their naivety
Boss Dean Keates said Walsall must address their naivety after a disastrous opening four minutes played a major part in their 3-1 loss at Doncaster.
The Saddlers found themselves 1-0 down after just two minutes at the Keepmoat Stadium when George Dobson brought down Mallik Wilks.
Replays later showed the foul was just outside the box but referee Graham Salisbury awarded a penalty which John Marquis scored.
Then just 120 seconds later, the hosts were 2-0 up with Wilks dancing into the box before finding the bottom corner.
“I was here watching Doncaster the other night - you do your analysis on them, your homework on them, they do start bright but we knew about that,” Keates said.
“Let’s not talk about the first one – he’s a yard outside the box the contact is.
“It’s the second one – we have to be in check of our emotions.
“There’s 87 minutes left to go of the game, we have to make sure we keep ourselves in the game.
“At 1-0 down, you’re going to create opportunities. To go 2-0 down straight away was naïve. It’s something that needs addressing.”
Walsall actually responded well following that dreadul opening four minutes.
They should have been given a penalty of their own when Josh Gordon was fouled by Marko Marosi but Salisbury gave nothing.
Zeli Ismail had an effort blocked off the lie before Isaiah Osbourne hit the crossbar with a header just yards from goal.
Gordon did pull a goal back for the Saddlers when he fired in from close range. But a wonderful free-kick from Danny Andrew sealed the points for the hosts.
“Performance-wise, I thought today was probably the worst performance of the last four, but we still got into good areas,” Keates continued.
“We should have gone in at half-time at 3-3. We had two chances – one cleared off the line, it had to be a goal – and the one that had the crossbar had to be a goal.
“We also should have had a penalty.”
Keates threw caution to the wind in the second half with strikers Andy Cook, Aramide Oteh, Morgan Ferrier and Gordon all on the field.
“Their keeper pulled some good saves off,” he added.
“We had to give ourselves an opportunity to try and take a point from the game.
“We tried to force it. We had a lot of strikers on the pitch. Their keeper did pull some good saves off.
“But we’ve done the damage to ourselves in the first-half.”
