Walsall's Jon Whitney refuses to comment on Rico Henry speculation

An outstanding hat-trick from Amadou Bakayoko as well strikes from Kieron Morris and Maz Kouyhar saw the Saddlers run out 5-2 winners at the Banks's Stadium last night.

And Whitney was delighted with his players after they bounced back in style from Saturday's disappointing draw with Bury.

"I thought we were excellent ­– more than I could wish for," Whitney said.

"There were lots of positives. Ama getting a hat-trick and Kouyhar also getting his first goal.

"The average appearance level for my starting XI was about 400 while for them it was 3,000.

"We needed to pit our wits against them, match them and then let our quality shine through – which we did.

"Erhun Oztumer ran the show. Bakayoko was clinical and everyone, to a man, put in a shift."

A crowd of just 1,022 supporters watched the cup tie with supporters staying away in protest of controversial changes made to the competition.

And Whitney sympathises with those who stayed at home.

"I can understand why they stayed away," he continued.

"There has been a lot of criticism about the changes to the competition. In a way it helped me because a lot of under-23 teams would see us as a scalp. But for our young team, it was a scalp to beat Grimsby because of their experience."

Meanwhile the boss refused to comment on speculation linking Henry with a reunion with Dean Smith at Brentford.

"There is always lots of talk about Rico Henry. I have got no comment on Rico.

"Maybe something might develop before the window closes but I've got no comment at the moment."