Dean Keates has demanded a reaction from his players after the Saddlers’ “embarrassing” second-half capitulation at relegation battlers Bradford.
The Saddlers trailed 1-0 at the break to Paul Caddis’ 34th-minute strike, despite arguably having the better of proceedings.
But the visitors collapsed after the restart, with David Ball’s double and Eoin Doyle’s late effort inflicting Walsall’s heaviest defeat of the season.
“I can’t defend that performance,” said the boss.
“The second half, in particular, was nowhere near good enough. I can only apologise to the fans.
“Second-half, that was an embarrassment and it will not be tolerated at the football club.
“The players need to look at themselves. First half, we conceded a bad goal from our phase of play and we needed to do better on the turnover. But we created chances and maybe should have had two or three goals in the first half.
“But the second half, I can’t defend that. They need to grow up and there needs to be a reaction on the back of that.”