Dean Keates: Walsall will be seen as favourites for relegation

The Saddlers, who have now won just one of their last 12 games, were beaten 1-0 by the Dons in a crunch relegation six-pointer last night.

Wally Downes’ men headed to the Banks’s Stadium rock bottom of the League One table, 10 points from safety.

But a goal from Blues loanee Steve Seddon saw them to their first win in seven league games.

It means the Saddlers are now just two points above the relegation zone. But with his side in dreadful form, Keates admitted they will now be seen as favourites to go down.

“It’s not a good position and there’s no papering over cracks,” the boss said.

“We are free-falling and we will be considered everybody’s favourites to go down even though we are eighth from bottom and there are seven teams below us.

“It’s still in our hands but we need to find something, we need a building block to build on, something to stop the rot.

“It hurts. It’s my hometown club and I’ll get judged on results but all of us, we have to stand up and be counted.”

Walsall began the season on a seven match unbeaten run with that form seeing them rise up to fourth in the table..

And Keates says the reason for his team’s contrasting form is confidence

“It’s confidence, confidence and momentum are massive in football,” he continued.

"When you are up there and you are flying, everything goes for you.

“When you are down there, you start over-analysing, this goes against us, that goes against us, a bobble goes against us, you’re hanging on to every decision that the referee doesn’t give you.

“We’ve got to get away from that. There’s only us that can turn it around and we have to be braver. We’ve got to get back what it was.

“There’s seven teams who would rather be in our position.”

While there were few positives from the Wimbledon game, Liam Kinsella and goalkeeper Liam Roberts did put in two impressive displays.

Keates added: “Robbo made some good saves, he looked himself and Kins came back in and he was outstanding."