Walsall caretaker Neil McDonald: We’ve all got to shoulder the blame

A turbulent week for the Saddlers has seen Taylor sacked after a run of seven successive League Two defeats – the last coming at bottom-of-the-table Scunthorpe United on Tuesday night.

Now, McDonald and Mat Sadler are taking on tomorrow’s clash with Tranmere, who sit second in the table and boast the league’s best defensive record.

Summing up the last few days, McDonald said: “Our main focus is the Tranmere game. Whatever’s gone is gone.

“We’re all disappointed and we’re all responsible – the players and the staff.

“We’ve been trying to help Matt be successful but, unfortunately, we’ve been on a bit of a run which has not been very nice. It ended up costing him his job.

“So, we have to come in. We have to try to pick ourselves up and try to get focused for Tranmere. That’s the most important thing now.

“The mood is obviously down. First of all, we obviously haven’t won a game for a while, and second of all, obviously the manager has left. He was well-liked, well-respected, and he was a pleasure to work with for me.

“Obviously, I was trying to give him a little bit of a helping hand, a little bit of experience.

“But it hasn’t worked and he’s probably lost his job for seven defeats on the bounce, which is difficult to take considering we haven’t been battered in every single game.

“So, the focus for Saturday is to individually do a little bit better in your performance, try to stop the opposition from playing, and still create the chances but be a bit more clinical in front of goal.

“And the last one is that the fewer mistakes, the better.

“Over the last seven games, we’ve made individual mistakes that end up costing you.

“So, if we can top and tail all of that, we’ll have a really good chance of trying to get something out of the game and stopping this run.”

A welcome positive piece of news for Walsall is that January signing Devante Rodney is pushing to be involved.

Jack Earing will also hope to recover from a head injury in time for the game.

“He’s been doing a lot of rehab with the physio department,” said McDonald on striker Rodney.

“It was the first time he’s joined in (on Thursday). We’re happy with his progress.”

McDonald added on Tranmere: “They are an efficient team. They win a lot of games 1-0 and don’t concede many – they are the best (defensively) in the league. They’re a tight-knit, experienced group.

“We’ve been trying to find areas to exploit, so hopefully we get the performance and the result as even though we’ve lost the last seven, we’ve deserved a lot more.”