Walsall Head Coach Brian Dutton has called on his players to show a stronger mentality after Saturday’s defeat to Colchester United.
James Clarke’s goal gave the Saddlers the lead but the U’s turned the game on its head through Michael Folivi and Ryan Clampin.
Dutton is keen for the players to right the wrongs from Saturday’s game against Salford City tomorrow night after he felt his team fell short at the weekend.
“I thought Colchester wanted it a little bit more than us,” Dutton said.
“It’s been a difficult week for our boys. We’ve had to go to the well after two positive results in this week but I thought we were short of what was required in terms of energy, fight, spirit and quality so I’m really disappointed with the 90 minutes.
“I’m looking for them to show a reaction.
“I made a point to the guys before the match (against Colchester) that we need mentality to be absolutely strong and not a weak mentality.
“To do that you’ve got to come to places like Colchester, show your authority and show that it doesn’t matter if you’re playing a cup final in front of 90,000 people or at Colchester with no fans, the mentality is still the same that you want to win that football game and you will do anything and everything you can to win that football game.
“I didn’t think I saw that, I thought I saw a lack of intensity and personal pride and that’s worrying. It needs reviewing, I’ll watch the game back, we’ll discussing and it need to be put right against Salford.”
The Saddlers were without Rory Holden in Essex which was a blow after having such a positive impact since his return from injury and Dutton explained why he absent.
“Rory Holden’s had an extensive period with the medical department at the football club,” he commented.
“We thought he was back fit and well, that doesn’t seem to be the case, he’s been a bit ginger since he’s returned, albeit he’s had a massive impact on us.
“A 75 per cent fit Rory Holden by the looks of it has still managed to get us two wins on the board and I think prior to Rory coming back, I think we’d won nine games and Rory started eight of them and you can see without him out there how much of a massive miss he is.
“He’s the guy who links defence to attack and we missed him dearly.
“In terms of how he is, he’s going to be assessed and we’re going to find out the problem.
“All we know is Rory isn’t comfortable in his skin on a football pitch and that’s not healthy. We need to make sure Rory Holden’s 110 per cent fit so we’ll have a report back and fingers cross we can put his mind at ease and kick him on.”
Attention turns to tomorrow’s match at home to Salford City.
Click here to purchase your match pass.