Hutchings asks for patience

Chris Hutchings today pleaded for patience from Walsall's fans after the lowest league crowd for 13 years reacted angrily to defeat.

The Saddlers were booed off after last night's 1-0 loss to Yeovil at the Banks's Stadium which attracted just 2,929 fans – the lowest league gate since a 0-0 draw with Grimsby in 1997.

Former Walsall loanee Sam Williams bagged the winner after just five minutes and Hutchings says the fans must realise his team are battling against a wretched home pitch.

"If they couldn't see it last night they must have blindfolds on," he said. "It's there for everyone to see, it's very difficult to play good, entertaining football on it.

"We've got wide players who want to run with it and if anyone wants to try then they can come down and try themselves.

"We always want better quality and even when we do play well we'll pick faults in that."

It was only their second defeat in eight games and Hutchings has asked for understanding after he was deprived of five senior players through injury.

He said: "They have backed us in the past and they are disappointed we didn't beat Yeovil. We can't do any more than what we're doing with what we've have.

"I put Sam (Adkins) on but we've got injuries to a lot of first team players and we couldn't change much. The only way was to put Clayton (McDonald) up front and go with three at the back.

"There wasn't a lot on the bench which would have made a significant difference to the side we had out."

And he insists his men will continue to give their all but cannot legislate for mistakes after Clayton Ince's error handed Yeovil the win.

"You can't fault the effort and when things are tight it's always going to be a mistake," said Hutchings. "You have to get the ball forward, get in the opposition's half and hope they make a mistake. They didn't and we did."

To compound their woes the Saddlers could lose Jamie Vincent to injury after the stand-in skipper twisted his ankle in the dying stages.

Hutchings added: "Jamie has rolled his ankle so we have to assess him. Hopefully Rhys Weston will be training and there's a possibly (Darryl) Westlake could be training on Thursday as well so we'll have to have a bit of role call and see how we are."

Meanwhile, reports in America suggest the Saddlers have handed a trial to defender Jonathan Borrajo.