Walsall's players futures at stake

Captain Darren Byfield has admitted Walsall's flops are fighting for their futures.

The Saddlers are now looking over their shoulders following the dismissal of the man who brought them to the club.

Sacked manager Chris Hutchings signed most of the squad along with former backroom staff Martin O'Connor and David Hamilton.

Head of youth Dean Smith is now in temporary charge but Byfield knows the players are in danger of being axed themselves.

He said: "There are a lot of us out of contract, including myself, at the end of the season so we need to buck our ideas up and help the team to stay up. If we do that we deserve a chance and have a future.

"We've got to start showing we're better than the position we're in."

And the 34-year-old knows the players let their former manager down after performances left them rock-bottom of League One.

"I'm not happy about the whole situation because the gaffer has made me captain and you feel like you've let him down, especially as I've been out for the last four months," said Byfield, currently recovering from a knee injury. "We're supposed to do a job and results should be better."