Not acceptable – Darrell Clarke’s anger as Port Vale lose to Walsall

Port Vale manager Darrell Clarke said the Port Vale performance against Walsall was “not acceptable” and an “embarrassment” on Tuesday night.

One of the poorest Vale performances of the season saw the side lose 1-0 to the visitors and have captain Tom Conlon sent off.

We never got going all night, it is as simple as that so we can pick the bones out of the game but we never got going…

Speaking to the media Clarke said: “I will mind my language but I am embarrassed, my players should be embarrassed, my staff should be embarrassed for putting on a performance like that. We were poor, we were bullied, we were rubbish with the ball.

“It is not acceptable. It is one of those nights and we have to take our medicine but also the players know that isn’t acceptable.

“So, we will see them in the morning, we will look at what went wrong and why it went wrong, we will analyse it as we always do but they certainly aren’t having the day off on that.

“I will accept a lot of things from my teams, over the years I have managed a lot of games now, but I won’t accept that sort of performance – ever.

“My players need to know that and then we need to respond.

“They are very aware of it. We never got going all night, it is as simple as that so we can pick the bones out of the game but we never got going.”