Mark Cooper bemoans “soft goals” as Barrow snatch point at Walsall

Barrow boss Mark Cooper was an unhappy man despite Josh Gordon rescuing a point with a stoppage-time equaliser against his old club in a 2-2 draw at Walsall.

Gordon guided home Patrick Brough’s cross six minutes into time added on to rock the club he left in the summer.

The Saddlers twice led through George Miller’s third brace in nine games – including a brilliant back-heeled finish – but George Williams’ first Barrow goal and Gordon’s last-gasp goal denied them.

Cooper groaned: “Until we stop conceding soft goals, we are going to have keep scoring two or three in a game to win. It’s a little bit of care, a little of desire to stop that ball going in our goal.

“I think it was the least we deserved for our performance. I’m disappointed we haven’t won. We are conceding rubbish goals which means we are drawing instead of winning.

“Their goals were too easy whereas our goals are worked, we have to pass, move and make the pitch big and prise them open. We started really sloppy and we keep doing that, we’ve got to stop.

“But we kept playing the way I want us to play and we refused to be beaten.

“We could have been two down and then we started to play, controlled the rest of the first half and I thought we took control for large periods of the second half.”

Walsall dominated the first half after Miller’s early close-range opener from a corner but Barrow keeper Paul Farman kept his side in it with a string of saves.

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After Williams levelled against the run of play, Miller back-heeled in from Hayden White’s cross only for Gordon to nab a point with the third stoppage-time goal Walsall have conceded at home this term.

Walsall boss Matt Taylor said: “We shouldn’t be in that position, that game should be out of sight in the first 30 minutes.

“This group of players need to become more consistent but the amount of chances we are creating is huge.

“We didn’t take those chances and you get punished for it if you don’t defend properly. It’s not about seeing out games, it’s about putting games away before you get in that position.

“For us to be talking now about a draw is slightly beyond me because of the amount of chances we have created to win a game of football.

“We were so dominant in the first half. When you are on top in games, you’ve got to kill games off because there will be that flip where the opposition have a spell as well.

“We are making progress, making steps in the right direction, it’s just slightly slower than I would have wanted.”

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