Keep the faith urges Chris Marsh

Walsall legend Chris Marsh has urged Saddlers fans to keep the faith despite their poor start to the campaign.

The former Banks's Stadium favourite is confident manager Chris Hutchings and assistant Martin O'Connor can ease the woes - starting at Hartlepool on Saturday.

On the pitch Walsall have lost seven of their nine games in all competitions and could drop into the League One relegation zone this weekend, but Marsh - who made 413 appearances for the Saddlers in a 13-year spell - insisted it is too early to panic.

He said: "I would just call for a bit of patience. They haven't been playing really badly, they've lost by the odd goal. If they'd been getting beaten by two or three they would have to look at themselves, but they're not.

"It's a very fine line and it's still very early in the season to be getting worried.

"As a player you get through to the big Christmas programme and after that you would think 'right, where are we now?'

"Then you start either building for promotion, looking at mid-table or fighting relegation.

"That's what we did as a player so why can't people treat managers the same way?"

The 40-year-old reckons if the Saddlers find some luck they could storm up the table, like they did in the title-winning campaign of 1998-99.

He said: "When we played Gillingham away on the first day of the season, I floated a free kick in and their defender headed it into the top corner and we won 1-0.

"I tried to claim it, of course, but it was a bit of luck and things snowballed from there. They could go to Hartlepool on Saturday, win with an own goal and go on an unbeaten run.

"They're just not getting the rub of the green at the moment."