Walsall boss rips into sloppy Saddlers

Furious Walsall boss Chris Hutchings has ripped into his sloppy stars and branded their defending a "joke."

The manager also admitted for the first time confidence is low after Walsall sunk to their sixth straight defeat and slipped into the League One relegation zone, following a 2-1 defeat at Hartlepool on Saturday.

Hutchings is under mounting pressure ahead of tomorrow's crunch trip to Leyton Orient - as defeat could see the Saddlers plummet to the bottom of the table.

And the Saddlers boss angrily lashed out at the men who threw away the lead at Victoria Park.

He said: "The lads have got to look in mirror themselves and start picking things out as Martin O'Connor and myself do.

"One or two have let themselves down, they have got to start looking at themselves. We can't keep giving goals away otherwise we'll stay on the run we are.

"The second was an absolute joke, there was no marking, there was no picking up and certain people have certain jobs to do. It's very frustrating when that happens.

"There wasn't any marking, we put up on the board who marks who and people have let us down.

"You can't afford can do that at any level."

Julian Gray had fired the Saddlers ahead before Tony Sweeney and Andy Monkhouse saved Hartlepool.

The manager revealed after another demoralising defeat his team are starting to lose confidence.

He said: "They are possibly a little bit low now, especially with the goals we've conceded, I don't think we've conceded a good goal in recent weeks.

"If you go over the ones we have conceded against Rochdale, Colchester and Swindon it's disappointing when you concede like that.

"Especially from set pieces like Saturday, people have jobs to do and when you switch off we have to do something about it.

"It's disappointing, the players are really disappointed but there's no excuse for goals we conceded."

A win against fellow strugglers Leyton Orient tomorrow would ease the pressure on the manager who has vowed to rescue the club's start to the season, which is on the brink of crisis.

Hutchings added: "It's up to us to find answers and it's what we'll be looking at."