Darrell Clarke: Sloppy performance cost Walsall
Walsall manager Darrell Clarke has criticised his side’s ‘sloppy performance’ after a 3-1 defeat away to high-flying Chelteham.
The Saddlers came into the fixture in good form, particularly away from home, but goals from Max Sheaf, Conor Thomas and Alfie May put the home side 3-0 up.
Elijah Adebayo netted a consolation goal for Walsall but Clarke was disappointed with an ‘awful’ first half.
“It was (disappointing),” he said.
“We can’t paper over that.
“I thought for the first 45 minutes we were awful, if I’m honest.
“Kicking it long, ball going out of play, no-one making angles to get on the ball.
“We didn’t look like a team that’s been doing well recently.
“Cheltenham are a good team, obviously, but we sort of played into their hands.
“We were very, very sloppy in our performance.
“We were very lethargic in our performance.
“Then we changed things around a little bit second half and we give another real cheap goal away.
“It doesn’t give us a chance to build and the players have got to learn from that.
“I’ve been very critical of my players previously and like I said to them in there, one in 10, I can handle it.
“I’m not happy, obviously, very disappointed.
“But you have to take your medicine in those situations.
“We got beat by a better team today and my team didn’t turn up.”
