Manager frustrated as his side dip below high standards and suffer late defeat at the Memorial Stadium.
- Darrell Clarke | “A game lacking in any real quality”
- Port Vale manager Darrell Clarke reflects on his side’s 1-0 defeat to Bristol Rovers in League One
- Clarke: “We had great chances in the first ten minutes to go ahead, but then we lost impetus, momentum and quality throughout the game. I didn’t think it was a game with any quality in it.”
Port Vale manager Darrell Clarke was frustrated his side didn’t take a point back to Burslem with them as Aaron Collins scored an 87th minute winner for Bristol Rovers at the Memorial Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Reflecting post-match with iFollow the Vale, Clarke stated his frustration at what he felt was a foul on Will Forrester for the hosts’ late winner, but acknowledged his side must be better.
“It was a game lacking in any real quality,” Clarke explained. “It probably should have been a 0-0 draw. How the referee doesn’t see the free-kick for the goal, I will never know.
“I am frustrated; it was a frustrating afternoon – our performance wasn’t good enough as well, so let’s not hide behind that. Our performance wasn’t to the standards he have been hitting recently.
“We had great chances in the first ten minutes to go ahead, but then we lost impetus, momentum and quality throughout the game. I didn’t think it was a game with any quality in it.
“You get games like that through the course of the season and you take a point, we should have got a point but we have to regroup and perform better than we did today.
“We have to finish chances, we had umpteen opportunities to look after the final ball and we had dangerous players one-v-one on the pitch to go and finish the opportunities but we haven’t took them today.
“I don’t to be too harsh on the lads but I thought the performance wasn’t of the standard I expect and we didn’t deliver today.”