Jimmy Walker: Saddlers must get nasty

Jimmy Walker today told Walsall's flops they must ditch their soft side and get nasty if they want to survive.

The keeper admitted the Saddlers must give each other an ear-bashing after performances and results left them bottom of League One.

Saturday's game with Oldham was postponed due to a frozen pitch which kept them seven points from safety.

And club legend Walker insisted the players must dish out the rollickings to start a revival.

"You have to get nasty with yourself and team-mates," he said.

"Sometimes if you're team-mate isn't doing it they should be told, I've been brought up in teams where, if you're not doing it right, then you're told.

"Sometimes there's not enough of that and you need to be mature and understand it because we all want to win the games.

"You don't win anything without being nasty and we've got to do that if we want to win games. Losing becomes a habit in the end and at the minute we're on a run which isn't so nice and we have to break that habit."

The Saddlers have won just three of their last 19 games in all competition and have come under-fire from fans for not backing up their words with performances.

They go to second-placed Charlton on Sunday bidding to upset the odds and Walker, who returned to the club in October, knows they have to start getting results.

"Talk is cheap, we have to turn it around and we have to do it as soon as possible," said the 37-year-old, who has made 484 appearances in two spells for Walsall. "The league is massive for us now, we have a week to work on things and we have to stand up and be counted, every one of us."

And the stopper insisted the players are hurting from a season which has seen protests against the manager and board and left the club fighting relegation.

"I'm a fan first and foremost, there's no-one more disappointed than me and the players. There's nothing worse than losing games," he said.

"We can work on that bit of quality. We're not that far away, I've said that all along, it's just very disappointing."