Clarke Pleased as Walsall Battle to Secure Awayday Win Clarke Pleased as Walsall Battle to Secure Awayday Win
Posted by: Bescot Banter

Clarke Pleased as Walsall Battle to Secure Awayday Win

Walsall manager Darrell Clarke has spoken to the press following the Saddlers' welcome win over Morecambe and hailed his side's battling defensive performance as they earned just their second league win of the season.
Clarke, who was joined in the Globe Arena by 232 travelling Saddlers supporters, watched as Stuart Sinclair's first goal in a Walsall shirt proved to be enough to secure all three points on a chilly evening in the North West.

Whilst the Mansfield-born boss was happy to see his side pick up the win he went on to urge caution as his team have plenty of tough matches just around the corner as they look to edge further from the relegation zone and begin to look ponder more positive league positions.

The gaffer had named an unchanged side from the Saturday's defeat to Bradford City and was rewarded with much-improved performances from Zak Jules, Rory Gaffney, and goalscorer Sinclair as the Reds, or Aqua's, bagged a clean-sheet to add to their growing collection.

Speaking to the assembled media Clarke insisted that the win simply represented three more points as he aims to guide his team further up the league table by securing more points over the coming days and weeks.

The gaffer said; "We’ve played better this season and lost, it was a good battling performance, 1-0, coming here with a fair bit of pressure on the boys to respond to Saturday with that gutting last 10 minute goal against Bradford.

"But they’ve done that, worked really hard, we thoroughly deserved the points on the night, but we don’t get carried away, we take the three points and move on.

"We were on the front foot for a lot of the game to be honest. I don’t think they had a shot on target, the keeper’s has to come and catch a couple of crosses.

"A really strong defensive performance from my lads, a fourth clean sheet in nine games.

"We know we still have to do better and be putting teams to bed a little bit earlier than we are doing but we take the three points and try and take it into Saturday."

Clarke went on to praise his team for how they remained focused and were able to play to the final whistle, in stark contrast to Saturday's defeat to the Bantams, where the manager believes his team downed tools after they conceded via Liam Kinsella's unlucky late own goal.

Darrell continued; "It’s the mindset of players, it doesn’t matter when you score the goals, you want to win football matches so you have to keep going until the 95th minute.

"Which I didn’t think we did on Saturday against Bradford, that was my biggest bugbear, when Bradford scored we didn’t respond in the way I expect us to respond.

"The boys responded well tonight, pat on the back, let’s get to work again tomorrow. I’m the manager and this was the team I was going to pick to win this specific game, it doesn’t mean that team will be Saturday."
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