Darrell Clarke unhappy with 'naive' Walsall performance in Carabao Cup exit

Goals from Felipe Morais and Tom Dallison put Gabriele Cioffi's side 2-0 up at the Banks’s Stadium before substitute Caolan Lavery pulled one back from the penalty spot.

From that point the Saddlers should have had some momentum but they conceded straight from the restart when Ashley Nadesan found the target.

Lavery netted again to give Clarke’s men hope - but they were unable to find an equaliser - with Cameron Norman hitting the bar late on.

“It wasn’t good enough for me,” Clarke said.

“I thought the effort and endeavor was there but that is the minimum standard we are going to be setting at this football club.

“It was naive. We got back into the game and then concede a goal 30 seconds after that. We got a bit of momentum and killed it.

“To be fair to Crawley they looked dangerous on the counter-attack. But for me, we have got to be better as a group.

“I’m very disappointed with the goals we conceded and thoroughly disappointed to be out the cup.”

Despite Clarke’s frustration, the boss was pleased to see Lavery net a brace.

The striker, who has previously played for Sheffield United, Sheffield Wednesday and Rotherham, joined the Saddlers last Tuesday on a free transfer.

“That was pleasing,” the boss said when asked about Lavery’s goals.

“He is one of those, he has missed all pre-season, the last thing I want to be doing is killing the boy too early.

“But he showed his quality when he was on the pitch.

“His second goal was a great finish and he’s put the penalty in.

“But overall we need more, we have got some experienced boys in there and we need to make sure their game management is better.

“We did it well at Northampton but not against Crawley. So we’ll take on our medicine and work towards the next project - which is Crewe.”