Jon Whitney: Walsall cannot hide away

A second-half goal from Ryan Taylor was enough to earn the Pligrims a New Year’s Day victory at Home Park.

The result extended the Saddlers winless run with Whitney’s side having drawn two and lost three of their five matches over the festive period.

And after dropping to 18th in League One, the boss has told his players they must rally together to begin climbing the table.

“The last couple of results have put us in a position where we are three points off 12th but we are three points off the bottom four,” Whitney said.

“It’s getting tight at the bottom but there are still positives we can take from Plymouth.

“We did enough to take something from the game – I think everyone that was there would agree with that.

“It’s still tight. But we can’t keep saying it. I am a little bit disappointed for the lads. I thought they put a real shift in.

“I thought it was a good away performance but we got punished for not taking our chances.

“I thought we were the better team in the first half. We contained them really well and were a threat on the counter. But when you don’t take your chances, it's likely they are going to get one and I think Taylor took it really well.

“I didn’t see the goal coming. I didn’t see them having a threat. I thought we had the threat on transition and I thought Zeli (Ismail) was causing them all sorts of problems.

“I thought it was only a matter of time until we capitalised but it didn’t come. So again it’s a 1-0 defeat. It puts us in a position where we have to re-group and get ready for a challenge.

“We can’t hide away from the fact we are three points off the bottom four.”

Whitney was adamant Walsall should have had a penalty at Home Park after Reece Flanagan was bundled over in the box.

“It was a blatant penalty,” he continued.

“I have looked at it again and it’s a blatant penalty. I thought the referee should have given it. But you don’t always get these things.

“If that is outside the box it is a foul and it will be going in my report to the referee.”

Whitney admitted he has been surprised by Walsall’s disappointing festive run with the Saddlers securing a 1-0 win over promotion chasing Scunthorpe before their form dipped.

“I am surprised,” he said.

“I know we have drawn two. And on another day we could have won them. But it shows how fine the margins are.

“What you have got to do is keep the belief and keep the performance levels.

“Apart from Northampton where we came off it, I still think the games have been really close. We have got to try and tweak it a little bit and I need to strengthen as well.”

Whitney made four changes for the trip to Devon with Liam Kinsella, James Wilson, Reece Flanagan and Amadou Bakayoko called recalled.

And the boss said he choose the players he felt would provide Derek Adams’ side with the biggest test.

“We had a game just 48 hours earlier - it was a little bit of that,” he said.

“And I have gone with that I think would cause a threat for them.

“Rúben Lameiras, Graham Carey and Ryan Taylor are not bad players, there front three is the reason they are on a good run of form.

“Taylor has proven that by getting once chance and scoring one goal. But I thought we matched them and were the better team first half.”

Alongside the personnel change, Whitney also switched to a 4-5-1 formation. And the boss was pleased with how the system work.

“I think we were solid - it was a similar shape to the Doncaster game,” he continued.

“We were compact in a 4-5-1 and we can quickly turn that into a 4-3-3 which I think we did at times really well.

“I think some of our switch play was really good. We tried to play, we tried to penetrate and we got it wide. We got some good balls in the box.

“There were lots of ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ but we have to work hard to turn these fine margins into our favour and pick up points.”