Fergie ire as he’s ‘let down’ but Jon beams
A CLASSIC away performance from Walsall was highlighted by Amadou Bakayoko’s tireless display, according to boss Jon Whitney, but Darren Ferguson slammed his Doncaster side for letting him down.
Two second-half goals from Erhun Oztumer and one from substitute Kieron Morris secured a vital win for the Saddlers as they were without a win in their last six outings.
With all three goals coming from the home side making inexcusable errors in possession, Rovers manager Ferguson was left fuming.
He said: “It’s very rare a manager gets praise but he gets a lot of criticism.
“I’ll be the one that takes the brunt of the criticism and as a manager you have to accept that because if you can’t, you shouldn’t be in the game.
“But if you’re asking me a direct question of how I feel, I feel the players have let everyone down with that performance and if they didn’t admit that I think they’d be telling lies.”
Whitney was understandably in a lot better spirits than his counterpart after the game as his side ended a run of four consecutive draws.
“In the second half I felt the energy from the lads and the defensive energy of Amadou Bakayoko especially was outstanding,” said Whitney. “Oztumer got his rewards because he did a job defensively for the team and Tyler (Roberts) led the line really well.
“It was a good away performance, that is what you want to do, soak up some pressure, hit them on the counterattack and score three excellent team goals.
“All the credit to the players, I am proud of them, Amadou especially.
“But the players can take that, I thought they were outstanding.” Tyler Roberts nicked the ball off Joe Wright and squared for Oztumer to open the scoring with a calm midrange finish just past the hour mark.
Minutes later Harry Toffolo gave the ball away high up the pitch and as Joe Edwards found Oztumer in acres of space, the man dubbed ‘the Turkish Messi’ made no mistake in rounding the keeper again to double the Saddler’s lead.
Bakayoko worked tirelessly all afternoon and he set up Morris to finish off the scoring with a well-placed shot from inside the area after Donny had carelessly lost possession high up the field once again.
The win moved the Saddlers up to 14th as they leapfrogged Donny, who slipped down to 18th.