Port Vale manager Darrell Clarke believes Aaron Collins’ winner for Bristol Rovers should have been disallowed but the Gas legend did criticise his team for a “frustrating” performance which was not befitting of their standards this season.
Saturday’s encounter at the Mem looked to be heading towards a 0-0 draw, as Vale had largely kept the Gas at arm's length, before Collins muscled Will Forrester off the ball in the 87th minute and crashed home a brilliant left-footed strike from just outside the penalty area.
Clarke was adamant that Collins barged Forrester illegally, and replays show the Vale boss perhaps has a case, while the Rovers No10 admitted after the game he expected to be whistled for it, but it was deemed a fair challenge by referee Carl Brook.
“It was a game lacking in any real quality,” Clarke said. “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. But they’re full of excuses in there and I’m not accepting that, that’s an obvious one. I’ll have to tell my player to go down after he gets shoved in the back.
“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 we have been hitting recently.
“We had great chances in the first 10 minutes to go ahead in the game, 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 we have to perform better than we did because you have to take decisions out of the referee’s hands by making sure you play well. It’s as simple as that.”
Clarke was given a warm welcome by Gasheads inside the Mem, who gave a minute’s applause on the 18th minute to show their support for their legendary former manager following the death of his daughter Ellie earlier this year, and sung, "there's only one Darrell Clarke".
Vale had won their previous three matches in league and cup, but outside of a bright opening, where James Belshaw pulled off a fine save to deny Ellis Harrison, and Tom Conlon’s strike towards the end, they didn’t like a team in form, often looking to disrupt and spoil, without any great attacking ambition, something which Clarke wasn’t impressed with.
“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 taken them,” Clarke added. “I don’t want to be too harsh on the lads but I thought the performance wasn’t of the standard I expect, and we didn’t deliver.
“I always want more. I’d rather get beat, but play a lot better, if I’m honest with you. For me, that was not a front foot performance; we didn’t make enough angles on the ball, enough movement, not enough taking responsibility, so we’ve got a lot of work to do.”
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