Mat Sadler "deflated" after Walsall's costly defeat against Accrington Stanley
Mat Sadler admitted he felt "deflated" after Walsall missed the chance to climb into the top three with a 1-0 defeat against Accrington Stanley at Bescot.
The Saddlers stretched their winless run to 13 matches as they head into the final game trailing the automatic promotion places by a point.
At the full-time whistle, there were loud chants of 'Sadler out' following a run of just two wins in 20 games in League Two.
When asked about the chants, Sadler said: "Frustrated, deflated, whatever way you want to put it but I'm not going to stop fighting, the group is not going to stop fighting.
"Everyone is giving everything that they can to turn our fortunes around. It's frustrating but that's football and the only way around it is to keep working.
"Football is football sometimes and we've done more than enough to win certain games in the past and not come the right side of the result.
"Then there are times where we've not done that. If you're trying to put your finger on it, it's very difficult, but we've got a group that are trying and fighting."
Sadler's charges had a prime opportunity to move into the final automatic promotion spot after Bradford City lost 2-0 at league leaders Doncaster Rovers in the early kick-off.
That confirmed Rovers' place in League One next season and Port Vale also secured promotion with a 2-0 win at AFC Wimbledon.
However, Walsall needed just a point to leapfrog third-place Bradford on goal difference.
Ben Woods scored the only goal of the game with a stunning volley into the far corner from the edge of the box just past the half-hour mark.
Taylor Allen and Albert Adomah both hit the post inside the opening 15 minutes and George Hall planted a header wide of the near post.
"We're all disappointed. That's probably the feeling we leave with today because I thought we were very good for large parts of the first half.
"Obviously we hit the post twice and had a couple of headers. It was a very good goal from them and sometimes when it's like that, it's like that.
"I thought we started the second half on the front-foot and then of course the sending off doesn't give us the chance to attack the final stages as we would want."
Substitute Connor Barrett had been on the pitch for just six minutes when he was shown a straight red card for a high challenge on Liam Coyle.
On the red card, Sadler added: "We haven't spoke about it yet. I haven't seen it again but it looked soft at the time.
"There was a tackle close to me that looked worse. But until I've seen it, I can't really say."
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