Express & Star

Jon Whitney hopeful of Deadline Day additions

Walsall boss Jon Whitney says he is still hopeful of making a couple of additions before the transfer window closes tomorrow.

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The Saddlers squad is currently light on numbers following the departures of loanees Tyler Roberts, Zeli Ismail, Daniel Agyei, James Wilson and Shaun Donnellan earlier this month.

Whitney watched as he side were convincingly beaten 3-1 by Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park tonight.

And the boss admitted his squad is in need of reinforcements with only George Dobson and Justin Shaibu having come in during the January window.

“There is another day left and as always things happen at the last minute,” the boss said following the game at Blackburn last night.

“We would like to bring in a couple of players if we can. We will do all we can to get some deals done.

“I’m still hopeful of one permanent signing but there are no guarantees. We will see what happens.

“There will be plenty of phone calls tomorrow but we are still very hopeful.”

Whitney admitted he was left frustrated by his players’ performance following a lacklustre display in Lancashire this evening.

“I thought we were poor,” the boss continued.

“We didn’t stick to the game plan. Blackburn went into the match 17 games unbeaten.

“We knew their threat. We know that Blackburn and Wigan are two really strong teams.

“But we were so naïve in the first 10 minutes. We were looking to play when it wasn’t on to play.

“That is decision making the players have got to accept. I cannot protect them from that.

“I think we were lucky to go in at half-time only 2-1 down. But I think if you’ve only got two or three of your players performing then you aren’t going to go to Blackburn and get a result.

“I think we all need to look at ourselves individually and work out what went wrong.

“I can accept being beaten by a better team. But we gave them two goals through our own naivety and that has given us a massive mountain to climb.

"At times it was too easy for them.

“You can’t go to Blackburn and expect to stop them on the run they are on with some of the decisions we made.”