Keep your belief urges Walsall boss

The Saddlers were left with nothing despite an impressive display on Saturday when Mark Hughes conceded a 61st minute penalty to hand Kevin Lisbie the winner.

Darren Byfield had equalised Lisbie's first half opener but the visitors could not find a deserved leveller.

Boss Hutchings insists his players must not get disheartened despite dropping to 14th in League One – five points off the play-off spots.

He said: "We go to these places and we've got to have the belief we can win games, which we know we're capable of doing.

"We've come away from home against a team who were eight games unbeaten and we're disappointed, especially after the performance. In the first half we got great balls in to the box and didn't get on the end of them. We had a few chances and they scored against the run of play.

"I was delighted with the reaction and we came straight back at them."

The defence marshalled Colchester's powerhouse strikers Kayode Odejayi and Clive Platt well and Hutchings was pleased with the way they handled the threat.

He said: "You're going to come under pressure against those two and I thought we coped admirably. We told the two midfield boys in front to screen the defence and they did their job allowing them to go for the headers, which allowed the centre-backs to drop off.

"We were pleased with that aspect, but again we went to a club doing really well in the league and we should have got something."

The Saddlers' preparations were upset by Jamie Vincent's late withdrawal with a calf injury, meaning Netan Sansara made his first appearance of the season.

Hutchings was pleased with the rookie left-back's performance.

He said: "Jamie pulled his calf in the warm-up so there was no point in risking him. It's too early to tell and he'll have to have a scan, but he was icing it before we kicked off. Netan came in and did well after such a late shout to play.

"It's an opportunity for him now and did his chances no harm at all. He came in and I was very pleased with his contribution, he did really well."

Sam Parkin was ruled out after suffering a back spasm and Steve Jones failed to recover from the virus which plagued him last week.

Hutchings said: "Steve had been ill all week and didn't travel. We couldn't risk him coming on the bus with a virus.

"Sam's back went into spasm, he had treatment when he got down there and said it wasn't quite right. There was no point trying to put him on and then his back worsening, so Will Grigg was on the bench."

Colchester boss Aidy Boothroyd admitted to giving his side a halftime rocket after a lacklustre first period.

He said: "I had a few things to say at half-time. It's like when you have an argument with your wife, you tend to come out and put a brave face on.

"I thought we were lacklustre and Walsall were better than us in the first half. But in the second half I thought there was only one side who would win it.

"I could pick holes in the performance, but we're not going to play well every minute of every game."