Walsall boss Dean Smith embarrassed by eight-goal rout
Dean Smith was "angry and embarrassed" after accusing his players of folding in Walsall's heaviest defeat for 32 years.
The Saddlers went down 8-2 to League One champions Bristol City in their final game of the season yesterday with the Robins netting four times in 10 second-half minutes to turn a 2-2 half-time scoreline into a rout.
The boss said: "We competed with them and looked a threat every time we broke and then they scored from our corner and we folded.
That was very unlike us and it makes me very angry but there's nothing I can do about it now. There is embarrassment because I don't think I've ever been beaten 8-2, even in kids' football."
"They are a very good team and we've got to give them the respect they deserve because they've deservedly won the title and they've done it in style with us as the fall-guys."
The Saddlers have not conceded eight goals since losing 8-1 at Bolton in a Third Division game in September, 1983, although they did lose by a bigger margin when they went down 7-0 against Chelsea at Fellows Park in the old Second Division in February, 1989.
And Smith hinted that the second-half surrender could affect his decisions on some of his out-of-contract players, who are due to learn their fate tomorrow.
"The turning point was the third goal when they broke from our corner," he said. "It looked like it deflated a lot of us and it shouldn't have. There was an end-of-season feel and that's not good enough.
"I've got contract discussions with a lot of them and it lets me know where they are. You don't change your mind on one game but it showed me a bit about the character of some of them.
"It's a good job it's the end of the season and we can now go and recruit for next season."
