You've let us down - Burnley report

An absolutely pathetic performance saw Walsall go down by one goal to nil against Burnley . Walsall got nothing from the game and in all honesty deserved nothing.

There was no heart, no passion and no desire shown by the players. This is quite incomprehensible given that a victory would more or less have secured another season at this level.

Burnley deserved their victory and were better throughout the ninety minutes. It was quite visible that Burnley wanted to win the match as they took the attacking play to Walsall . As an attacking unit Walsall were virtually non existent and continually resorted to the long aimless hoof in the hope that Bradbury could win something. Unfortunately when he did, no-one was around to collect the knock downs.

Burnley had threatened early on with Branch heading over and Grant registering an effort on goal.

Jenson in the Burnley goal had only one save of note to make all afternoon tipping a Merson lob over the bar. Fortunately for the Saddlers, Burnley squandered endless chances and could have been three goals to the good at half time as they walked through a non existent midfield and skipped past a defence who had forgotten how to mark. Three gilt edged chances were wasted.

After such a poor first half showing one would have thought that Walsall would have come out firing on all cylinders. Sadly, that was not the case as they continued in the same lackluster manner as in the first half.

Our cause wasn't helped by the fact that Roper was replaced by Carbon at half time. Roper had picked up a head injury in the first half, this probably forced his early exit.

The breakthrough came after 55 minutes when Burley conceded a penalty and Blake converted. Even though Colin Lee rung the changes and changed to a 442 system there still didn’t seem much chance of an equaliser as Jensen remained a virtual spectator.

Sub Jermaine McSporran went close in the second half, but failed to connect with the ball and shot wide. He and Mark Wright added some much needed width to the team, and whipped some good balls in to the box as the clock ticked down. Wright himself had a half decent chance, but slipped before he could pull the trigger.

Walsall seemed to be carrying far too many passengers. The spark from the Derby game was gone. The brisk, crisp was missing It was sloppy, slow and disappointing. We did try and get something from the game at the end. Zigor and Andrews both hit disappointing free kicks which failed to find the target.

The only player to emerge with any credit was Neil Emblen who at least showed some desire.