Walsall Head Coach Brian Dutton admitted his team threw points away after they surrendered a 1-0 lead against Bolton Wanderers.
Sam Perry put the Saddlers in front with a sumptuous strike in the first half before Kieran Lee levelled midway through the second half.
The game turned when Hayden White was sent off and Bolton completed the turnaround through Eoin Doyle's fired penalty.
Dutton insists the mentality must improve after a frustrating afternoon at the University of Bolton Stadium.
“We threw it away,” Dutton said.
“Poor mentality, one nil up again and we become a hard luck story. That’s down to us and nobody else.
“We’re in control of the game, one nil up and forcing errors again. Second half they’ve undone us and got it to 1-1, that’s when you need to dig in and be men and we weren’t, we collapsed and gave them a route to win the game.
“We keep shooting ourselves in the foot and we keep being a soft touch so that’s going to happen isn’t it? I don’t want the mentality at the football club where we pat ourselves on the back for performing and not getting the result. We have to change that culture.”
The games continue to come thick and fast for the Saddlers who have two away games coming up against Southend United and Grimsby Town in the coming days.
Dutton says his players need to learn from the Bolton defeat when they head to Southend tomorrow for another crucial game in Sky Bet League Two.
“It’s a massive week Southend and Grimsby, let’s not hide away from that. We need to dust ourselves down and get ourselves ready for that game. We will look forward to it. The performances are there, it’s just the results. We can’t keep saying that, we need the results – starting with Southend.”
“They’ve got to learn from it. It’s a real valuable experience what’s happened on that pitch.
"You’ve come up against the most in-form team in the league and your game plan has worked a treat but we keep shooting ourselves in the foot whether it’s penalties, late goals or red cards, we keep shooting ourselves in the foot and it’s not good enough. It’s got to change.”
You can watch tomorrow’s game live on iFollow by purchasing a match pass here.