Matt Taylor: Walsall not ruthless enough

Alfie Beestin’s 90th minute equaliser denied the Saddlers a first win of the season and Taylor the maiden victory of his managerial career.

On loan Huddersfield striker Kieran Phillips had earlier netted for the first time in senior football to put the hosts ahead at the Banks’s.

But the Saddlers were unable to find a second to kill the game off and were ultimately made to pay the price.

Taylor said: “To limit the opposition to one opportunity in the second half is great – but then they score that opportunity.

“I felt we didn’t take our chances when we had them to really extend the lead, whether that’s to score to make it 1-0 in the first half.

“The players, you can see them, they are confident in possession. I just felt tonight that those big chances we had, we weren’t ruthless enough and we got punished. It’s a difficult one to take.”

Walsall’s wastefulness was summed up by the fact just one of their 17 attempts at goal was on target.

The point was enough to move them off the bottom of the early season League Two table and Taylor insisted it is too soon to panic.

He said: “You can see the confidence is coming and it’s imperative now that that doesn’t knock them for the next game because we were really good tonight in big spells.

“We’ve just got to be more ruthless when those chances come. We will have games this season when we are unplayable but at the moment the defining factor is we are creating lots of chances but we are just maybe snatching, just maybe not making the right decision.

“That’s not the forwards’ fault, that’s everybody on the pitch, that when we do create those chances we have to take them.

“We needed a reaction tonight from the players and I think we got it. It’s just we obviously haven’t got the win I felt that our play deserved but sometimes in football you don’t always get what you deserve.

“I know that Scunthorpe tonight will be far happier with a point than we are.”