Saddlers' Smith: I'm hurting as much as the fans

A run of three straight defeats has dropped Smith's men to one place off the bottom of League One, ahead of Chesterfield's visit tomorrow. That, coupled with a lousy record of just four wins from their last 32 league games dating back to January, has begun to see the manager's position come under increasing scrutiny from fans.

But Smith is convinced improvement remains just around the corner and wants supporters to stay behind him and his players.

"We are having a difficult time in terms of results at the moment but we believe in what we are doing and hopefully the fans can stick with us too," said Smith.

"We should have taken four points from these past two games and we would be sitting nicely in mid-table – that is what we have to keep in mind, we won't be getting all doom and gloom.

"I'm hurting as much as anyone at the position we are in and I can understand there will be dissenting voices and people who aren't happy.

"But there have also been a lot of factors which have contributed to our position, we brought in a lot of new players over the summer and we've been missing some key players through injury.

"When all of our players are fully fit, I still believe we are capable of a top ten finish in this league."

Smith is keen to see his side replicate the performance from Tuesday's 1-0 defeat at Crawley, where he felt only the goals were missing.

"Everything is judged by results but we can't control them," he said. "It was easy to come out and speak after the game on Tuesday when we perform like that – maybe I did sound a little defiant. But that is what we are about. On another night we would have won the game with a performance like that. But one win alone will not see us turn the corner."

Former skipper Andy Butler has moved out on loan from Sheffield United to Doncaster until January. The 30-year-old left the Saddlers on Monday.