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Walsall boss threatens shake-up

Image: Dean Smith: Not enough desire

Dean Smith accused some of his Walsall players of not showing enough desire as they slipped into the League One relegation zone.

The only goal of the game came six minutes from the end when home midfielder Romaine Sawyers mis-kicked in his own goalmouth trying to clear a Billy Waters corner, and Alex defender Adam Dugdale lashed the loose ball into the back of the net. It was the second successive defeat for the Saddlers, and Smith said: "I didn't think we deserved to lose, and I thought in a lot of the game we were the better team. "But we did not show an awful lot of desire to get the ball back a times, and didn't show enough to open them up. The last few home performances had been very good, and we scored three times in two of them. But we gave the ball away cheaply at times today, and there was like an acceptance. "I said last week the players need to take more responsibility and I still stand by that. I told the players before and I have told them during this week that if I see a continued acceptance by some players they will be moved out. "There were spells where we camped in their half, and the first 20 minutes of the second half was more like us. I never felt we were under massive pressure against Crewe." Crewe manager Steve Davis felt his decision to switch the system to three centre-backs was the reason for successive wins over Coventry and Walsall. He said: "It is certainly a factor. I thought we deserved to win. We had some good chances in the first half and I thought we frustrated them. "When games are tight like that you have to work on your set-plays which become important, and you hope it drops for you. We didn't allow Walsall to get behind us and tried to make them play longer. "I hope both teams survive because we are both similar in what we do - bringing in young players The problem is when you lose your young players and it's difficult to replace them." Breaking news, transfer gossip, line ups and goal alerts from your football club - delivered direct to your mobile. Sign up for Sky Sports Alerts

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