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Kory Roberts blow mars Walsall's friendly with Stoke

Boss Dean Keates felt Walsall learned some valuable lessons following their pre-season defeat to Stoke.

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Former Barcelona stars Bojan and Ibrahim Afellay both netted from 25 yards in the opening five minutes, while Peter Crouch was also on target to earn the Potters a 3-0 win on Saturday.

Stoke were eager to impress in what was Gary Rowett’s first public outing as manager. But Keates felt his side recovered well after their poor start.

“We got caught out early on – we had a slow start and they have scored with two 25-yard goals,” he said.

“Robbo (Liam Roberts) has held his hands up and said he slipped on both.

“You can’t control those kind of things. But we didn’t get to grips with their rotation early on. We left too many gaps.

“But we grew into the game and had some decent moments going forward.

“Zeli (Ismail) broke forward a few times and showed glimpses of what he will be about this season.

“But we’ve got a few friendlies where we are going to spend time without the ball so it’s about getting distances correct.

“It also about concentration and learning when you break and breaking in numbers.”

The friendly clash was overshadowed at the end when Kory Roberts broke both his fibula and tibia bones in his leg.

The youngster is now set to miss the entire 2018/19 campaign. And Keates admitted he’d been delighted with the defender prior to the injury.

“He had been outstanding,” the boss added.

“He had done really well. There were bits and pieces to work on because it was only his second game.

“But I thought he acquitted himself fantastically.”