Angry Hutchings offers no excuses
Angry boss Chris Hutchings has put Walsall's 5-0 capitulation to Bristol Rovers down to a freak result but offered no excuses after his side's surrender.
The Saddlers put in their worst performance of the season, as they found themselves 3-0 down after 19 minutes thanks to goals from Darryl Duffy, Craig Disley and Aaron Lescott.
Further second half goals from Duffy and Lescott condemned the Saddlers to their biggest defeat since they were thumped 5-0 by Brentford in February 2006.
Hutchings was, unsurprisingly, dumbstruck by Walsall's meek defeat and said his side lacked energy.
He said: "I don't like freak results and you have to put it down to that but you've got to look at the reasons why.
"We didn't look as though we had any energy, whether the early goals knocked that energy out of us I don't know, but it was a bad day at the office and we've got no complaints about the result."
The boss admitted the early two-goal salvo from Duffy and Disley hit the Saddlers' confidence and they suffered from then on in.
He said: "We gave ourselves a mountain to climb going in 3-0 down at half time. At 2-0 down after six minutes they had confidence and we didn't.
"It hits your confidence and it's very difficult to get back into the game, I don't think their keeper had a save to make in the first half.
"We were very poor on the day."
Only Jabo Ibehre's late, weak, effort troubled visiting keeper Steve Phillips after Sofiene Zaaboub and Troy Deeney had missed the target with their only other efforts of note.
Hutchings was upset with the lack of attacking threat, especially as they needed to press following their early nightmare.
He said: "We didn't put their keeper under any pressure and only had a couple of token gestures in the second half, which was very disappointing."
The home clash with Brighton represents the ideal opportunity to get a demoralising defeat out of their system.
Hutchings said: "There are no easy ones, we know that, Oldham got beaten 6-2 on Saturday so it goes to show it does happen.
"The main thing is we have a game tomorrow and something to bounce back for. The players have got to prove it was a one off and that we do bounce back, it's as simple as that.
"We'll analyse the video and see what we come up with and hopefully put it right tomorrow. A bad day at the office and that's all we can say."
But opposite number, Rovers first team coach Paul Trollope, was delighted with his side's fantastic display. It was the former Fulham man's 200th game in charge of the Pirates and he said there were few better.
He said: "It's up there, to win 5-0 away was a great result for the group, I didn't realise it was 200 games –it's flown by.
"It wasn't an easy game on paper but we said if we could start well and get an early goal it would go a long way."
