Walsall manager Darrell Clarke 'doesn't lose any sleep' over the sack

After the 2-1 defeat away at Swindon at the beginning of the month, Walsall had lost six league games in a row, mounting pressure on Clarke's position at the helm.

The club's owner Leigh Pomlett, and his board of directors, kept faith in the 41-year-old and have seen an upturn in results in recent games.

Clarke's side are now five unbeaten, with wins in the EFL Trophy, FA Cup and league.

But Clarke insists he has always had a 'fantastic relationship' with the board.

"I don't lose any sleep, I really don't," he said.

"I don't get bogged down with all that rubbish.

"If a club don't want you, they get rid of you, I won't cry about it.

"I have good, open lines of communication with my board - a fantastic relationship.

"They know where we are as a football club, so I don't cry myself to sleep at night.

"Although I can't afford to lose my job, I have a family to support, I'm not a millionaire.

"I'm a council estate kid so everything I've earned myself.

"I don't go home crying about losing my job, only how I can make the club better."

And after being given time by his board to turn the club's form around, Clarke says more time is needed to get the club challenging for promotion.

"Yes, of course it is (nice to have faith from the board)," he added.

"I have my pro licence and they're quite funny the courses you do because everything revolves around time.

"But you don't get time as a manager do you, in a lot of cases.

"They're quite funny in that aspect.

"I think all managers need time, especially with the turnaround of this football club.

"We have a lot of work to do, that's for sure.

"I'm not mentioning play-offs or anything.

"I'll say what I said in September, we're miles away from being a top seven team in my opinion.

"We need a couple of windows to get where the squad needs to be.

"When you're managing Walsall sometimes it's the underbelly that you need to strengthen.

"The underbelly at Walsall is the development players.

"We have a lot of development players and when you have key players that miss massive chunks of the season, the underbelly is a little bit inexperienced.

"That can create a learning environment for some of these players to get through the bad runs."