Michael Flynn rues Walsall's lack of 'ruthlessness' in Bradford defeat
Michael Flynn has expressed his frustration with Walsall's lack of ruthlessness at both ends after their tough run continued at Bradford City.
The Saddlers put in a vastly encouraging display at a packed-out Valley Parade but poor finishing let them down.
Danny Johnson had a penalty saved and several other chances went to waste before the Bantams' quickfire double through Andy Cook and Jake Young.
Donervon Daniels replied in the second half but an equaliser proved elusive, with Walsall suffering a disappointing fourth straight loss in all competitions while it is now seven games without a victory.
"We've got to be better in both boxes. Poor finishing, poor decision-making, missing a penalty," said Flynn.
"We weren't good enough around our box in a half where we absolutely dominated.
"We dominated the game, to be honest, apart from five or 10 minutes.
"It's very frustrating, but we go again. Any goal you concede is disappointing, but even more so when you've worked on them all week on the training pitch and video analysis.
"We showed them their strengths. Andy Cook is a very good finisher at this level, so we needed to make sure he wasn't spare, but he gets a free shot.
"We worked on stopping their widemen cutting inside, and then we decided to let him (Young) come in and pick his corner."
Cook and Young's goals came within minutes of each other at the end of the first half.
Walsall will be kicking themselves for not at least grabbing a point as Flynn felt it was arguably their brightest showing of the season – finishing aside.
Daniels took his goal well with a clever toe-poked finish but Johnson's early spot-kick was saved convincingly by Harry Lewis.
Lewis was the home side's man of the match having also kept out Tom Knowles before Bradford got their two goals.
"We weren't ruthless enough and I'll say professional enough, because that comes into the professionalism category," said Flynn.
"You've got to step on their throats. When you have an opportunity to come here and kill them off, you've got to do it.
"Otherwise you get punished because they've got some good players.
"I think the performance was unbelievable. It's the best we've played since Hartlepool, if not better than that.
"It's disappointing. We've just got to again, keep knocking on the door and kill teams off."
