Dean Keates: Walsall defeat 'tough one to take'

On what was a heartbreaking afternoon for the Saddlers, a mix of poor finishing and bad referring cost them three crucial points.

Isaiah Osbourne had a goal wrongly chalked off after Josh Gordon was deemed to have fouled Ethan Pinnock.

Corey Blackett-Taylor also had an effort that appeared to be over the line ruled out, while Gordon and Zeli Ismail both spurned good chances.

And all those opportunities came back to bite the Saddlers when Barnsley - who had hardly threatened in the second half - scored in stoppage time.

After first seeing a shot blocked by George Dobson, Jacob Brown then handled the ball before firing in at the second attempt.

But the referee didn’t spot anything wrong and that meant the Tykes headed back to Yorkshire with three points they didn’t deserve.

“I’ve just said to the players in there that in the last few weeks we’ve put in half-performances, for 45 minutes, for 50 minutes - today, I think for 90 minutes we were by far the better team,” Keates said.

“We created chances but that probably shows you where we are at the moment.

“A little bit of naivety, a little bit of not being ruthless enough when we’ve had the opportunities.

“If we had won 2-0 or 3-0 I don’t think anybody could have moaned at the score.

“The game plan worked to a tee other than the result. We set traps and knew where we could counter them.

“They like to keep you penned in and put their game on to you and we flipped it – we put our game on to them and we were going for it.

“It’s disappointing, it’s a massive, massive body blow but we have to dust ourselves down and regroup. We need to learn.

“We’ve got some massive games coming up and if we keep performing like that and giving full 90-minute performances, something will turn and go in our favour.”

Keates admitted the result was tough to take but he said his players must stay positive despite still being in the relegation zone.

“It starts with me but I have to remain positive,” the boss continued.

“It hurts, it’s a tough one to take.

“We’ve created opportunities and not taken them – but Ozzy’s (Osbourne) scored a great goal in the first half. It’s not a foul, as simple as that.

“I’ve just seen their goal back. George Dobson had made a great block on it, second phase it’s bounced up off Brown’s thigh then hit him on his arm.

“We aren’t getting those small margins at the moment. When you are at the top of the league, one or two things bounce in your favour.

“We are not getting that luck or bit of fortune. We have to keep working hard, that’s what we are about.

“The endeavour and workrate was there and we wanted to get three points and make the league table look a lot different by the time everyone else kicked off.

“But if we keep performing like that, I’m sure we will be okay.”