Dean Smith is still hopeful of safety

Walsall manager Dean Smith has insisted the Saddlers have not blown their survival chances despite being KO'd by Leyton Orient.

A 2-0 defeat to Orient last night plunged them back into the League One relegation places after Dagenham & Redbridge's win over Colchester.

Victories for Bristol Rovers and Plymouth – against Tranmere and Swindon respectively – also closed the gap at the foot of the table with just three points separating the bottom five.

Defeat left the Saddlers fourth-from-bottom, having played more games than their relegation rivals, but Smith remained confident over their safety bid.

He said: "If we'd won, lost or drawn it wasn't going to define where we're going to be at the end of the season, we've still got 10 games to go.

"It's one less game to go and it makes the task even harder but the lads know that anyway. We know where we are and what we have to do.

"We have to keep working hard and I keep saying if we keep putting in performances we'll get the wins."

Goals from Harry Kane and Jonathan Tehoue either side of the break won it for play-off hopefuls Orient, but a blank night meant the Saddlers have now scored just two goals in seven games.

Smith admitted it was a worry but insists it's a problem they will solve.

A blank night meant the Saddlers have now scored just two goals in seven games and Smith admitted it's a worry but a problem they will solve.

He said: "Of course it's a concern, we should have taken our chances but didn't. In the last few games we haven't scored as many as we should have done.

"We're creating chances, if they are not being taken there might be a problem – although not creating chances is a bigger problem.

"We have to be more clinical but I stressed that when we played Bristol Rovers and scored six. That's not going to happen every week and we have become dogged and resolute in the meantime."

And the Saddlers boss wasn't happy with the nature of defeat last night, including the way they shipped the goals.

He said: "Do I think they deserved to beat us 2-0? No, but unfortunately we didn't take our chances when they came about and they scored at a poor time from our point of view.

"The goals were sloppy."

Smith also confirmed Aaron Lescott will be sidelined with medial ligament damage, but insists the right-back could only miss two weeks after limping off against Swindon on Saturday.

The manager said: "He's strained his medial ligaments so he'll be out for a couple of weeks."