Ugly wins no sweat for Hutchings
Walsall manager Chris Hutchings has vowed to ditch his footballing ethics in favour of three points – insisting he has no fears about winning ugly.
The Saddlers claimed an impressive 1-0 win at Brighton on Saturday, with a mixture of slick passing and gritty determination.
Andrew Whing's 30th- minute own goal capped a fine first-half performance, before the Saddlers had to scrap to preserve their lead after the break.
Boss Hutchings has preached passing football during his reign but admits he will drop his philosophies if it means winning.
He said: "It's not all about nicey-nicey football – you've got to have people who are going to dig deep, knowing when to play and when not to play.
"It's all about three points. Everyone wants to play like Arsenal, pass it, have fantastic movement and win 4-0, but that doesn't always happen.
"There are more ways to win a game and if we can scrap it out we need players who are prepared to do that.
"The players have got to learn quickly, certainly against better opposition, with all due respect to Brighton, the higher up we go the more we'll be punished.
"There were one or two instances in the second half where we tried to play out and it was the wrong decision."
Hutchings fielded six debutants, including striker Sam Parkin, who impressed despite failing to score.
