Jon Whitney: Players must restore Walsall pride

Walsall boss Jon Whitney has ordered his players to go out and restore some pride following their crushing defeat to Barnsley in the League One play-offs.

The Tykes ran out 3-0 winners in the semi-final first leg with the Saddlers now having a mountain to climb if they are to reach the Wembley final.

A Jason Demetriou own-goal and two strikes from Barnsley's Sam Winnall secured the win for the Yorkshire outfit with Whitney admitting he was hurt following his team's performance.

"I think even if I didn't say anything you'd know how I was feeling," the head coach said.

"We are away at Oakwell and I didn't feel we deserved to go in a goal down at half time. I thought it was quite even.

"If you can keep it at that then you are still in the game. They got the next one and I wasn't happy with the way we dealt with it after that.

"We have spoken about game management over the past few days. In the play-offs it's about how you manage a tie if you are 1-0 down.

"I will look at it. It's not a Bradford, I'm not going to come in and rip heads off. But we owe the fans something on Thursday now.

"What a contrast from Port Vale in just a few days. Sometimes in life you get smacked in the teeth and we have just been smacked in the teeth by Barnsley.

"But you can either hide away and give up for the summer or you can come and show me and our fans some pride on Thursday."

Whitney felt Barnsley out battled his side.

"Some of the challenges, some of the contests today – not good enough," he added.

"If you want to get to Wembley in the play-offs you have to fight.

"Barnsley fought better than us today. At 2-0 you are still in the tie. You get the first goal at the Banks's and suddenly the tension builds again with our massive home following.

"But 3-0 makes it a huge hill to climb. But I've climbed hills before."