Walsall skipper Mark Hughes admits the team must drop their powder-puff attitude and find a mean streak if they want success.

The Saddlers went down 2-0 at Charlton on Saturday after goals from Miguel Angel Llera and Scott Wagstaff condemned them to a second straight defeat.

Defender Hughes reckons the side are a soft touch and, despite being team-mates, they have to get nasty with each other.

He said: “I know you are mates off the pitch, but maybe for 90 minutes we can be a bit nasty to each other. It wouldn’t do anyone any harm.

“It would wake players up so we can get more out of them. We need to be nastier in the box, not dirty, but get a bit tighter.

“We’re a bit too nice. We do OK and we do work hard for each other, but maybe when balls are coming in the box we can be tighter to our men and be more ruthless.”

Llera and Wagstaff took advantage of slack defending in each half to sink the Saddlers and Hughes admitted they deserved nothing.

The centre-half said: “The way things are going at the moment, every little mistake we make we’re getting punished.

“But with the level we’re playing at and the teams in this league you get punished.

“We were saying in the changing room we were pretty poor and didn’t deserve anything from the game.”