Football Clarke left angry after poor second-half showing against Walsall

DARRELL Clarke expressed his disappointment at Bristol Rover's failure to hold on to their first-half lead after their 2-1 defeat to Walsall on Saturday.

- Malachi OBREY

The Gas were dominant throughout the first half at the Pallet-Track Bescot Stadium against the League Two leaders. Fabrizio Cavegn's sixth strike of the season put Clarke's men ahead, with the Swiss striker swivelling before impressively slotting the ball into the bottom left corner inside the box.

In the second half, the Saddlers began to grow into the game. A spell of pressure culminated with Aaron Pressley thumping a header home to draw the hosts level. Nine minutes later, the striker doubled his tally for the afternoon, putting his side ahead by slipping the ball past Luke Southwood with a low shot from close range.

Opting to go long, Rovers tried to create an opportunity to equal the scoreboard with a whopping 10 minutes of additional play tagged on at the end of the 90. However, the Pirates failed to make anything stick and suffered their first defeat in almost two months.

Manager Clarke expressed his dismay at his team's change in behaviour in the second half.

"Not good enough," the 47-yearold bluntly put it.

"I'm pretty honest with my players; for me, nowhere near good enough. We didn't ride the little bit of a storm, if it was that, bad goals we've conceded and never got con-