Keates proud of Walsall’s spirit after victory over Rochdale

Posted Sunday, August 26, 2018 by PA

Walsall boss Dean Keates hailed his side’s desire after their 2-1 win at Rochdale.

The Saddlers picked up their third successive win with strikes from Josh Ginnelly and Zeli Ismail.

Callum Camps pulled one back late on for the home side, making it a nervy finish for Keates’ men.

While the Walsall boss is keen to address the goals conceded by his side, he was full of praise for his team’s spirit.

“I can’t be any more proud of the lads with the work rate that they give and the shift they have put in,” said Keates.

“We will look back at it and it’s something we need to look at massively – we got 2-0 up and we need to be braver with our passes, we allowed ourselves to get sucked in, we got pushed too deep and they are the bits that we need to work on.

“But in terms of the character and desire, there is a togetherness among these players.

“We go on about clean sheets and we want clean sheets and we are disappointed that we’ve conceded towards the end of the game.

“It’s not through fatigue or teams overrunning us I think it’s just about stripping it back to when we had the ball – can we make better decisions to make sure the second phase doesn’t end up in the back of our net. But full credit to the players, they were brilliant to a man.”

Dale bossed first-half possession but rarely threatened Liam Roberts’ goal.

And they were dealt a sucker punch in the 32nd minute when debutant goalkeeper Magnus Norman, on loan from Fulham, miscued a pass out from the back straight to Josh Ginnelly, who fired home thanks to a heavy deflection off MJ Williams.

Sub Ismail doubled the lead with a fine individual effort after 78 minutes before Camps converted from close range within a minute after Aaron Wilbraham’s header struck the post.

The visitors had to play out the last few minutes with just ten men after Ismail was sent off for a second bookable offence but try as they might, Dale could not break down the Walsall defence for a second time.

“We threw everything at Walsall in the last ten minutes but we were 2-0 down by then and we shouldn’t have been,” said Dale boss Keith Hill.

“No matter how hard this group of players is working we can’t keep making the mistakes we’re making. Sometimes things go against you, but you have got to fight hard, stick to your principles and have a winning mentality even in defeat.

“The game was too slow, we played into the opponents hands. We played through the units well with respect to getting the ball where we needed it but it became slow and predictable, and that’s what the opponents wanted. They are very good at sitting and picking your pocket and that’s what happened.”