Walsall showed 'shades of last season' in Hartlepool defeat says Michael Flynn

And the straight-talking Welshman assured fans it wouldn’t be coming back, as the Saddlers gave away two injury-time goals to throw away a game they had seemingly won.

Flynn was seething after the game and promised a week of ‘hard graft’ on the training ground to get his team ready for successive home games with Barrow and Bradford City.

He said: “It was uncharacteristic to be fair, the defence have been really good of late and the problem has been scoring goals.

“We probably should have been three up in the first 15 minutes, but we were still two goals to the good by injury time so by anyone’s reckoning the game was there for the taking.

“But we conceded two poor goals, the penalty the striker has got the wrong side of Kins (Liam Kinsella) and with the cross for the equaliser we should have put the ball out.

“The defenders take the credit when due so they can take the criticism from this game and I’m just glad we have a week with the team before the next game.”

Flynn said he had taken some ‘kicks in the teeth’ in football before, but this was up with them

He said: “We were by far the better team but that doesn’t matter if you are going to switch off at a certain point and not do the basics right.

“It was shades of last season and I can assure the fans, who were again fantastic in support at Hartlepool that it won’t be repeated.”

Flynn wouldn’t talk about the play-offs, with Walsall facing an uphill battle to get into the top seven places – they are now nine points away from Mansfield with just one game in hand.

He said: “We will be where we we will be at the end of the season. I don’t even want to talk about the play-offs at the moment, I am still digesting this result.

“But one thing we did see at Hartlepool are the twists and turns this game can bring, so who knows what will happen between now and the end of the season.

“Although I have criticised the players today or more the defenders, they have given me everything this season. I have said it before and they will do until the end I can guarantee that.”