Jon Whitney: Walsall must learn to win 'ugly'

The Saddlers slipped to a 2-0 loss at Wigan on Saturday – with former Banks’s favourite Will Grigg netting both goals to sink his former side.

Whitney’s men achieved their first away win of 2017 in their previous outing on the road at Oxford.

But they were convincingly beaten at the DW Stadium with Paul Cook’s men thoroughly deserving of the points.

And Whitney accepted the performance in Greater Manchester was not good enough.

“We need to do more to pick up wins away from home,” the boss said. “It was great getting that win at Oxford.

“But sometimes you need to come away from home and be quite ugly. There are times when you need to scrap and fight and I don’t think we did that at Wigan.

“We want to entertain at home and play with energy. But we need to keep that away from home as well.”

Despite being disappointed with his team’s display on Saturday, Whitney was pleased with the impact made by substitute Dan Agyei.

The Burnley loanee scored a goal of the season contender coming off the bench in last week’s draw with Charlton.

And he again looked a threat against the promotion chasing Latics.

“I think Daniel Agyei deserves a special mention,” Whitney continued.

“He showed real grit and determination coming off the back of that goal he scored against Charlton.

“He was the one big plus. I’ve told him that.

“If anyone wants to fight to get a shirt, that is how you go about it.”

Meanwhile, Whitney confirmed they will continue to assess goalkeeper Mark Gillespie after he came off on Saturday with a head injury.

The glovesman was injured after colliding with Nick Powell in the build-up to Wigan’s opener.

But Whitney isn’t expecting the injury to be too serious.

“I think he (Gillespie) was showing signs of slight concussion,” the boss added.

“We will look into that but he wasn’t unconscious in anyway so it shouldn’t be long term.”