Chris Hutchings backs Walsall fight
Tuesday 23rd November 2010, 10:59AM GMT.
Walsall boss Chris Hutchings has backed the Saddlers to beat the drop and urged his troops to keep on fighting.
The manager has issued a rallying cry ahead of tonight’s trip to free-scoring Sheffield Wednesday. with his players bidding to close the five-point gap to safety.
They go to Hillsborough aiming to build on Saturday’s morale-boosting 2-1 win over Carlisle and, despite still being bottom, Hutchings insisted they will survive if they keep pushing.
He said: “I’ve always had confidence we can get out of trouble but the lads have to perform like they did on Saturday time and again – if they don’t they’ll struggle.
“They’ve shown what they can do and they’ve got to do it again. Every game is important, there’s no getting away from it and tonight is as important as last week.
“We’ve had two wins, one in the cup and one in the league, we’ve got another game tonight and that’s what we’re focusing on.”
Hutchings pointed to the squad’s summit meeting on Friday as a catalyst for the win over Carlisle, but insisted the team must forget about the victory and focus on the job in hand.
He said: “We had a meeting and discussed one or two things and they came up trumps, but we’ve got another game tonight and they’ve got to do it again.
“The next game is always is the biggest one. We won’t get carried away. We set standards, we know what they can do and it’s up to them to prove themselves again and again.
“We’ve got a tough game at Sheffield Wednesday, we have to make sure we prepare fully for that one and give a performance like we did on Saturday.”
Victory could take the Saddlers off the bottom of the table and just two points to safety and Matt Richards insisted the visitors can spring a shock.
He added: “It’s going to be a big occasion but we’re up for it, we showed we can beat some big teams like Leeds last season.”
UK Sport
Latest Blog — A week is a long time in football
This time last week we were staring down the barrel, third from bottom with a worse record than at the same stage last year, writes Saddlers blogger Mark Jones.
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Fingers crossed then but the best we can hope for is that the other results go our way again and that the gap doesn’t open up any further.
Perhaps a draw to take in some confidence for the trip to Torquay on saturday
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One win means nothing…
You are still clueless CH and should have had the boot weeks go… Get out and stay out.
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As supporters we will be looking for a good performance; (If this “crisis meeting” has indeed been the catalyst everyone is looking for to get things going)and some sort of a result please…..
IF CH has indeed galvanised the team then good luck to him.
IF it is yet another spineless inept display then that surely is confirmation that he speaks utter twaddle !!??
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“Hutchings insisted they will survive if they keep pushing”
Wow, that’s a long way from July when you were insisting the squad was good enough to compete at the top end of the table.
Had to re-assess your optimism he Chris? Yeah so have us fans after seeing the dross served up so far this season.
I sincerely hope Saturday was a major turning point in our season but I’d better not hold my breath, eh?
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4 WINS SO FAR NO HOPE BYE c.h..
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