Jon Whitney delighted by resilient Walsall

Strikes from Shay McCartan and Dominic Poleon as well as a Luke Leahy own-goal saw the Bantams race into a 3-0 lead at the Banks’s Stadium.

But the Saddlers fought back with Leahy netting his second goal in as many games before debutant Tyler Roberts and Amadou Bakayoko earned Whitney’s men a deserved point.

“That game shows our resilience,” Whitney said.

“Our heads never dropped. You never know when it turns and once you start attacking that end with our fans, it becomes an incredible atmosphere.

“I’ve got to give a special mention to the fans. They were fantastic today.

“And I know you ask who’s the catalyst? I thought we were the catalyst together.

“The appreciation they had at half-time helped my players to keep their heads up high.

“We looked like a team who were 2-0 up when I came in to speak to them. And that’s really important because you can easily feel sorry for yourself.

“We still believed we could go on and win that game. Then we get hit with another sucker-punch but I still thought our reactions were fantastic.

“Three headed goals. Tyler Roberts gets a goal on debut, Amadou gets his rewards for his hard work, Luke Leahy scores again and we are a little bit disappointed we didn’t get one at the end and win it but maybe that’s being a little bit greedy.”

Whitney’s believes his side has made big strides forward since they came from behind to beat Oldham in their first home game of the 2017/18 campaign.

“From start to finish I thought our energy and enthusiasm were brilliant,” he added.

“We didn’t take safe options. If you compare that to the Oldham game, you can see we understand now that we have to take a little bit of a risk.

“Because that’s the type of team we are. We have to play with high energy – because the energy we can produce will cause massive problems and it will open up opportunities for us.”