Not good enough – Darrell Clarke on Port Vale’s draw with Stevenage

Port Vale manager Darrell Clarke says blame lies with the players after Port Vale’s poor first-half display against Stevenage.

I need to analyse why we performed so badly because I had done my job right. The shape was right, but for me it looked like a lot of basic, very poor errors…

Vale had a difficult first-half before rallying in the second period. Clarke says his tactics were right and the problem lies with the players. He commented: “Let’s not paper over that first half. That was atrocious, not good enough, not anywhere near good enough.

“I need to analyse why we performed so badly because I had done my job right. The shape was right, but for me it looked like a lot of basic, very poor errors.

“We weren’t doing the basics of the game right, we looked all over the shop. We scored a good goal, they equalised, but I never felt comfortable in the first-half so I made the changes I thought were necessary in the second-half to give us better impetus. I thought we probably edged the second-half.”

The Port Vale manager felt the second-half display was more encouraging adding: “The reaction was good in the second half, really positive on the front foot.

“We got a good reaction in the second half. That can happen sometimes in this league where you are nowhere near it, which we weren’t in that first half.”