Dean Keates: I couldn't be more proud of Walsall
Dean Keates told his players he couldn’t be any prouder of them after Walsall battled their way to a 2-1 win at Rochdale.
Goals from Josh Ginnelly and Zeli Ismail - who was later sent off - saw the Saddlers pick up their fifth win in six matches at Spotland.
In what overall was a scrappy encounter, Keates’ men weren’t at their free-flowing best - with Callum Camps pulling a goal back for the Dale just seconds after Ismail found the target.
But that moment aside they produced yet another brave defensive display to ensure they remain unbeaten this season.
“I’ve said to the lads, I can’t be any more proud of them – of the workrate they give and the shift they have put in,” Keates said.
“We will look back at it – and it is something we need to look at massively – because we got 2-0 up and we need to be braver with the ball.
“We could have made passes and we didn’t. We got sucked in. We got pushed a little bit too deep and they are the bits we need to effect and that we will learn from.
“But the character again, and the desire to arrive on things – if they didn’t arrive on the first one, they would arrive on the second one – it was brilliant.
“There’s a togetherness in there and you saw that. We go on about clean sheets, we want a clean sheet and we are disappointed that we have conceded towards the end.
“And it’s not through fatigue, it’s not teams overrunning us – we just need to look back and strip it back to when we have got the ball.
“Can we make the better decision to make sure the second phase doesn’t end up in our box or, especially, end up in the back of our net.
“But full credit to them. To a man, they were outstanding.”
Ismail was sent off for two yellow cards with the first arriving for kicking the ball away after he’d given away a free-kick.
The winger was then harshly adjudged to have handled the ball in the 86th minute.
“We can affect the first booking,” Keates said.
“That’s something I need to have a chat with him about. It’s silly. The second one – he’s a yard from the lad and the ricochet has hit him on the hand.
“One week it goes for you, one week it doesn’t.
“But it’s the first one we can have a chat about and that’s where he needs to do better.
He’s in there disappointed and he’s apologised to the lads – but he has nothing to apologise for. He’s scored the winning goal.”
