Jon Whitney full of praise for Walsall defence
Boss Jon Whitney has heaped praise on his defenders after they registered a fifth clean sheet of the season in the win at Southend.
A hat-trick from talisman Erhun Oztumer saw the Saddlers sweep to a 3-0 victory at a snowy Roots Hall on Saturday.
Just five days earlier, Whitney had been vocal in his criticism of his team's defensive performance at Peterborough – with individual errors helping Posh to victory.
But speaking before the trip to Essex, the boss predicted his team would start picking up more clean sheets in the final months of the campaign.
And they backed up that claim on Saturday, with Luke Leahy, Jon Guthrie, Kory Roberts and Nicky Devlin all impressing in a resolute display.
"We had been giving away too many cheap goals but I thought the back four were really good at Southend," Whitney said.
"We have worked a lot on the training ground to stop crosses getting into our box.
"And that was crucial on Saturday because Southend had players who are capable of putting in some dangerous deliveries.
"They put you under a lot of pressure. But even though we lost against Peterborough and Blackburn, we took confidence from those performances.
"Southend created very little. In the second half we restricted them to next to nothing and that is very pleasing.
"As a manager, getting clean sheets is what I love.
"Not many teams go to Roots Hall to win. To win 3-0 was great but I would have taken a one-nil. It was Erhun’s first career hat-trick. But overall it was a great team performance."
Whitney was particularly pleased with the performance of youngster Kory Roberts in the win against the Shrimpers
The centre-back was initially named amongst the substitutes but was thrown into the starting line-up just minutes before kick-off after Jack Fitzwater injured his back in the warm up.
"I thought young Kory Roberts was outstanding," Whitney added.
"Jack pulled his back in the warm-up. It’s nothing major with Jack. It’s nothing serious and will settle down.
"The referee and Chris Powell allowed us to bring in Kory Roberts and not to have to use it as a sub.
"That was just five minutes before kick-off. But Kory took his top off, jumped straight in and performed really well which tells you a lot about him."
