Preparation is key for Walsall goalkeeper Neil Etheridge

The keeper ensured the Saddlers held on for a surprise 1-0 victory at Bramall Lane when he kept out Billy Sharp's spot-kick with just six minutes remaining.

Whitney explained how Etheridge, first-team coach Neil Cutler and analyst Callum Hayes spend time before each game studying opposition penalty-takers.

"I think they spent half an hour in the hotel looking at penalties," he said. "You can see how the hard work pays off in moments like that.

"Neil (Etheridge) is big on it – who might be taking it, where they usually put it. He works on physical cues as well – biomechanics – so has a good idea by the run-up where he is going to put it.

"That is why you do the work, for those times when it comes good."

Etheridge also received advice immediately before the spot-kick from defender James O'Connor, who played in the same team as Sharp at Doncaster Rovers.

"I thought he was going to go down the middle but I didn't want him (Sharp) to hear me incase he changed his mind!" said O'Connor. "It was fantastic work by Neil again.

"Sharpy is a good mate of mine but it is one of those. It was a really good result for us."

Victory ended the Saddlers' five-game winless streak and eased the pressure beginning to build on Whitney following a miserable run which had also seen his team dumped out of the FA Cup by non-league Macclesfield.

The manager also took deserved plaudits for his decision to alter the shape of his team and mimic the Blades' 3-5-2 formation. Though not a tactic familiar to many of his players, it proved effective in blunting the home team's attacking prowess during the first half, before the Saddlers rode their luck during a second period in which the hosts had two goals ruled out in addition to Sharp's penalty miss.

"I thought it was important we matched them and I wanted to get more presence up top as well with Erhun Oztumer and Amadou Bakayoko," explained Whitney. "It was new to a lot of players – Kieron Morris has never played left wing-back before – but I know they can do it.

"We worked on it and they executed it well. They only had a day to work on it but they took the gameplan on really well.

"I thought we stifled them in the first half and then came under pressure in the second half. That is always going to happen at Bramall Lane. As a team we stayed compact and defended for our lives."

Sharp thought he had levelled for the hosts in stoppage time and redeemed his penalty miss, only for referee Darren England to rule the striker had used his hand to convert.

Whitney joked: "It's football, not basketball! I thought we deserved it. The resilience – that is one of the words we have up on the wall of the training ground – it just shone for me.

"I won't get too carried away but it is nice to go into a break on the back of two really good results. It bodes well moving forward."