Whitney thrilled with clean sheet as Walsall frustrate in-form Gills

Posted Sunday, February 18, 2018 by PA

Walsall boss Jon Whitney admits he loves nothing more than a clean sheet and believes that was exactly what goalkeeper Liam Roberts deserved after inspiring the Saddlers to a goalless draw at in-form Gillingham.

Roberts denied Tom Eaves and Jake Hessenthaler, among others, on multiple occasions, while Gills’ leading scorer Eaves also hit the bar with a first-half header and hooked a shot on to the post after the break.

Walsall offered little attacking threat themselves but after grinding out a performance, Whitney was pleased to see the Saddlers leave Kent with something to show for their efforts.

“I’m happy with the point,” he said. “When we came to set up we saw that the pitch was really lively, which I wasn’t expecting, so we had to adapt our plans.

“I thought we played really well. They’re one of the in-form teams in the league and you can see why. Tom Eaves is playing well for them up top now he’s showing his full potential and Josh Parker is a handful.

“They put the ball in early – we defended a lot of crosses and we put our bodies on the line. It was a good test for our defence.

“I spoke at half-time about getting the first hit in on him [Tom Eaves] to protect the space in the box and we did it much better in the second half.

“As a manager I love clean sheets more than anything else, they build confidence in the back unit. We’ve got a young goalkeeper too, so it’s nice for him as well and what he deserved.”

Gillingham undoubtedly had the better of the game and while boss Steve Lovell was irritated not to emerge with all three points, he admits fatigue may have played its part.

“One word for that – frustration,” he said. “Walsall defended reasonably well but we still had three or four good opportunities in the first half, and another three in the second half, where we should have put the game to bed.

“I think we’d be out there now and we still wouldn’t have scored! I’ll take the point and move on.

“I’m disappointed we haven’t got the three points but a few months ago I’d have probably been happy to get one.

“I felt that a few of the boys looked tired. We didn’t play with the level of sharpness we’ve had in recent weeks. We looked leggy.

“We’ve set ourselves a benchmark of how we want to play but we couldn’t match that for one reason or another.

“We’re in the middle of the table on 45 points, which is decent, but there are still a lot of points to be gained. We’ll be ready to try and get three points at Shrewsbury on Tuesday.”