Jon Macken today admitted Walsall have lost the right to ask for more support from their long-suffering fans.

The straight-talking striker knows the Saddlers’ faithful have run out of patience with their rock-bottom side.

They are nine points from League One safety ahead of Saturday’s crunch visit of relegation rivals Bristol Rovers knowing they must win at least half of their 20 remaining games to stand a chance of survival.

And Macken conceded the Saddlers cannot take any support for granted after a winless start to 2011.

He said: “We are working very hard and I would like to ask people to be patient but I don’t think they can afford to be patient any more.

“Every single fan has the right to complain because of where we are. If we were top of the league and they were still complaining then that might be unjust.

“But we are where we are and fans can do whatever they choose to and we understand their frustrations. We’re just as frustrated and want to improve just as much as they want us to.

We’ve got to go at it with as much belief as we can.”

Boss Dean Smith is hunting his first victory since taking over five games ago after Tuesday’s 1-1 draw with Oldham.

And with the Saddlers winless in their last seven games Macken knows, for all their improvement, they must start taking three points.

“We’ve tried to go on a roll but we lost 4-2 to Huddersfield a couple of weeks ago and it’s not good enough, we don’t want those results – we want to turn it around,” said the 33-year-old.

“As much as the fans could say we performed better we still got beaten 4-2 and it’s not good enough as a team and we know that as players.

“At the end of the day we’ve got to keep going and keep believing.

“We’re aiming to survive this season and we’re looking to do better. We haven’t got maximum points but the performance levels have been there so it’s something to build on to achieve things.”

Meanwhile, Macken’s strike partner, Will Grigg, has been called up to the Northern Ireland Under-21s for their Challenge Match with Wales on February 9 in Wrexham.