Knocks pile up as Saints await

CHRIS Hutchings has backed his Walsall side to bounce back from Tuesday's shocker against Yeovil – despite injuries piling up.

Already without Rhys Weston, Peter Till and Sam Parkin, the Saddlers saw Darryl Westlake strain a calf and Dwayne Mattis fracture a leg in Saturday's 2-1 win over Brentford, while Jamie Vincent took a knock in the poor 1-0 loss to Yeovil.

With Steve Jones still on his way back from injury – and missing from the bench in midweek due to a family illness – it all adds up to a dearth of options for Saturday's daunting trip to Southampton.

Hutchings said: "Jamie rolled his ankle and it came up quite swollen so we'll have to assess him.

"Hopefully Rhys will be training on Thursday and there's a possibility Westlake may be back with us so we'll have to have a roll-call.

"Southampton is going to be a tough game but it's not an impossible place to go and get a result as we showed last week (at Leeds)."

Hutchings may also hand Rene Gilmartin a recall in goal as a blunder from Clayton Ince – not his first of the season – handed Yeovil their winning goal in the snow on Tuesday.

The boss added: "We gave them a goal and if you do that, it's always going to be difficult, especially on that sort of pitch.

"We said it would be a mistake, a lack of concentration that decided it – and that's what it was.

"It's all right pulling off saves afterwards but it has cost us. It was a bad goal."

The defeat to Yeovil featured jeers from the crowd during the game and at the final whistle as the Saddlers failed to muster an effort on target of note but Hutchings was quick to defend his players.

He added: "It's very difficult to play good, entertaining football on that pitch.

"We've got wide players who want to get the ball and run with it but if anybody from the stand wants to go and run with it and try to cross the ball, they are quite welcome to as it's difficult.

"We always want better quality and even when we do play well, we pick faults.

"The fans have backed us in the past but they are disappointed we've not beaten them (Yeovil) – but we can do no more than what we are doing with what we have.

"We've got injuries to a lot of first team players and we couldn't change it – there wasn't a lot on the bench that would have made a significant difference to the side we had out there."

Walsall are giving a trial to American defender Jonathan Borrajo. The former Real Maryland Monarchs star will link up with the squad later this week.