Walsall boss may not enter the loan market

Smith insisted he will show faith with his young stars despite the Saddlers' poor start to the League One season extending to six games without a victory.

The loan window for Football League clubs opens tomorrow but Smith, who was without seven players for Saturday's goalless home draw with fellow strugglers Colchester, is reluctant to use it.

And he played down the significance of the early-season table, which has his side in the drop zone after four draws and two defeats so far.

Smith said: "It is a lot of players to have out but we've got a budget we work to and we've got a fairly big squad.

"If you go and borrow players where does the experience come from for your young players?

"We're not afraid to put the young players in and there's evidence of that over the last couple of years.

"We're not worried about the table because we're six games in, but we're worried that we haven't scored enough goals.

"Tom Bradshaw has been the other goalscorer in the League so far for us.

"Unfortunately players read newspapers and listen to comments on social media, where people can have a free pop at them.

"But we believe in what we're doing, we're trying to get young players through.

"The calibre of players we've got missing at the moment have proven to be very good at this level.

"But the young kids have come in and done very well, especially Liam Kinsella. We're six points off the play-offs so are we in a relegation battle? No, I don't think so."

Smith will welcome Romaine Sawyers back from international duty for Saturday's meeting with Preston but is unlikely to have Ben Purkiss, James Chambers, Matt Preston, Sam Mantom, Ashley Grimes or Jordan Cook back from injury.

Smith admitted he was "worried" when Colchester appealed for a penalty early in the second-half on Saturday, after Sanchez Watt went down under Paul Downing's challenge.

Colchester boss Tony Humes said: "You can't fully see it from the sidelines but it looked fairly blatant to me."