Walsall manager Chris Hutchings admits he will go back to the drawing board after a goalless stalemate with Gillingham.

The Saddlers registered just one shot on target in the 0-0 bore-draw on Saturday, as the search for a goal in open play goes on.

Andrew Whing’s own goal at Brighton remains their only effort not from a set-piece, as the Saddlers stretched their winless run to five games.

Afterwards Hutchings confessed he needs to address his team’s failings and may look to the loan market.

He said: “We’ll look at it and analyse it, but we were slow out of the blocks and didn’t really come to terms with it from the start.

“We might have to look to get someone in on loan. We looked at what we did in training and eased off this week to be quite honest. We’ll have to have another look at what we did wrong because we didn’t start the game sharply.

“There needs to be more urgency and conviction, not from anyone in particular but as a team.

“There’s lots of things we need to work on in training, it’s not just one thing so we’ll have a look at it and decide what we need to do, because obviously we’ve got another game on Tuesday now in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy against Bury.”

Hutchings saw few positives but did pick out the performances of Manny Smith and Dwayne Mattis – captain for the day – as well as Stephen Roberts’ first League One start since December as highlights.

He said: “It was Robbo’s first game for a little while. We knew it was going to be tough on him, but he tried to get through as long as possible before he cramped up.

“He did OK but I wouldn’t say anybody played well. There was only really Manny I would say and possibly Dwayne who came out with any real credit.

“I thought at least Dwayne covered the ground, was looking to pick up the second balls and won some tackles, apart from that it was a very lacklustre performance.”