Walsall, who play host to fellow strugglers Southend on Good Friday before tacking on Wycombe Wanderers on Easter Monday, and O’Connor revealed there were some harsh words said following last weekend's ‘non-performance’ against Accrington Stanley, and the 51-year-old is hoping that those harsh words can get a reaction, in what is set to be a pivotal weekend.
Speaking via the club's official website, Martin said; "We regrouped on Sunday morning and cleared the air. We had a meeting and a few things were said by myself and there were a few comments from the boys as well.
"We aired our frustrations and disappointments and then we all came in on Monday and trained hard and we did the same on Tuesday as well. I am looking to see a reaction from them on Friday.
"To be fair to the players, they have been working very hard in training this week and hopefully that will bear fruit in Friday’s game. I know they have got confidence and I know they are good players.
"They need to have that belief within themselves to go out and perform, to compete and to embrace the challenge of the position we find ourselves in. I think it is a mindset rather than a physical element.
"We are where we are because of our performance levels over the last three or four months. We haven’t been good enough and we now find ourselves fighting a relegation battle that we have been in for two months and we are still in it.
"We could still get ourselves out of it though and that is the positive that I have been telling the players. We still have a chance to get ourselves out of this scrap.
"Rather than looking at the negatives, like how we didn’t perform against Accrington, the positives are that we are still in with a chance of getting out of this."