Darrell Clarke: "The Buck Stops With Me" Darrell Clarke: "The Buck Stops With Me"
Posted by: Bescot Banter

Darrell Clarke: "The Buck Stops With Me"

Walsall manager Darrell Clarke has spoken to the local press following the Saddlers' disappointing defeat to Morecambe, and admitted there are no excuses as his side slipped to their second defeat in as many games.
Goals from Steven Old and Carlos Mendes-Gomes proved to be enough to secure the win for the travelling Shrimps who have endured a dismal campaign so far, seeing them battling it out with Stevenage in a bid to avoid dropping into the National League next season.

Clarke also backed winger Wes McDonald to learn from his error after the winger opted to take the penalty he'd earned midway through the first-half, despite striker Josh Gordon being the designated taker.

Wes, who recently penned a new deal at Banks's Stadium, was only able to find the hands of Shrimps stopper Christoffer Mafoumbi as his weak effort failed to find the back of the net, with Clarke revealing that Wes shouldn't have taken the kick.

With the scores level at the break Morecambe were able to go on to secure a much-needed win as Steven Old and Carlos Mendes-Gomes found the back of the net giving their side a welcome four-point advantage over bottom-of-the-table Stevenage.

Speaking to the assembled media, Darrell said; "What should have happened is Josh Gordon should have taken the penalty. I’m not going to make a massive thing of it because I’ll deal with it in-house.

"What I will say is Wes has been magnificent since he’s been at the football club and he’ll learn his lesson. He obviously felt confident to take it, but that’s not the way we work.

"I’ll deal with that in-house, we’re thoroughly disappointed that he chose to take it and then even more disappointed that he missed. He’s held his hands up in the changing room.

"We don’t want to see that, the spirit in the lads is fantastic and the group will forgive him for that. He’s been our match winner on numerous occasions and he’ll learn.

"I don’t want to knock Wes McDonald because he’s a confident player and I think it affected his performance for the majority of the game. So we have to pick him up and get him back to his best."

The result saw the Saddlers slip to fourteenth in the League To table and Clarke, who is still hoping to add another experienced winger to his side ahead of Friday's Transfer Deadline, insists he takes responsibility for the below-par display.

Darrell continued; "A shocker - we can’t excuse that performance. After the penalty miss we got very sloppy and conceded another goal from a set piece. We got going a bit towards the end and then get done with a sucker punch.

"But it was no-where near good enough, we know that. The fans have every right to feel angry and disappointed with that performance, so I hold my hands up. There’s no excuses from myself.

"We’re disappointed to have back-to-back home wins, getting a bit of momentum, but that’s no-where near the standards we’ve set ourselves. The buck stops with me on that one, so I’ll take it on the chin."
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