Jon Whitney praises 'excellent' Walsall and 'incredible' Saddlers fans

Despite emergency services urging people not travel as storms continued to disrupt the country, the Shrimpers got the game on with a loyal group of fans turning up before kick-off to clear the pitch of snow.

But while their team were on top for the opening half-hour, the Saddlers took control from that point on with Oztumer netting a superb hat-trick to earn his side victory.

As well as a scintillating performance from Walsall's Wizard of Oz, defenders Luke Leahy, Nicky Devlin, Jon Guthrie and Kory Roberts all put in outstanding displays in defence.

And Whitney was delighted with his team.

“We were really looking forward to the game - it was a fabulous effort from Southend’s fans to get it on, he said.

“I thought to a man we were excellent. We put a plan of action in place and had too much for them.

“I spoke to Erhun and Julien (Ngoy) before the game. I said if they start linking up, they can be really dangerous together.

“We have seen glimpses of that in the last two games. We know what Erhun can do. And I really like the goals he scored.

“The third in particular, we have been working on him arriving in the box more. He does a lot of good stuff outside the box.

“But I’ve told him if he gets inside that six-yard box he can add to his tally and get 20 goals plus.

“It was really nice for him to get his three. But I think everyone will agree, it was a really good team performance today.

“We stifled them, particularly in the second half, I thought our performance was excellent.”

Before kick-off, Whitney had challenged his players to finish the campaign strongly in what he has called a ’12 game mini-tournament.’

And he was pleased to kick-start the run-in by securing what was Walsall’s fourth away victory of the campaign.

“We have spoken about the last 12 games, this mini-tournament,” he said.

“We spoke about what we want to achieve as a group. And the players all said they just want to keep more clean sheets because we are creating opportunities.

“We have been giving away too many cheap goals. But this is a good start. We won’t get carried away and it’s really nice to come here and travel home with a really good three points.

"I thought we cleared our lines when we needed to. Put it in the stands when we needed to and then we played.

“We were a little bit tentative first-half. We battled really well but we didn’t really show them our game.

“We spoke at half-time about seeing if Southend could deal with our football and I thought from then on the lads were excellent.”

A fantastic 119 Saddlers braved the elements to roar their team onto victory. And Whitney was thrilled to be able to send them home with a crucial three points.

“It was an incredible effort from the fans,” he added.

“They deserve an immense amount of credit. All the advice was to not come out the house and I can see why, it’s crazy weather.

“But they have been rewarded with a really good performance. And considering the pitch, I felt we played some really good football. Attractive, attacking football.

“I’m really pleased for them. A big thank-you to them and hopefully we have put a smile on their face and they will have a nice journey back up – if they can find a way home!”