Darrell Clarke delighted by Walsall performance
Darrell Clarke has hailed the character of his Walsall side to recover from losing a lead to go on and win against Oldham Athletic.
The Saddlers were in control after Josh Gordon put them ahead and a Carl Piergianni own goal made it two.
But the Latics struck back quickly through Dylan Fage and Piergianni who made up for his earlier error.
With the game finely poised at 2-2 Elijah Adebayo stepped up to notch the winner and Clarke was ‘delighted’ with his side’s never-say-die attitude.
When asked to sum up his feelings on the game, Clarke said: “It’s not good for a manager’s heart is it.
“It’s about getting the W at the end of the game isn’t it. 2-0 up and they always look dangerous, they’re a good side and have scored a lot of goals this season.
“They’re always an attacking threat but so are we.
“It’s pleasing that we’re adding goals to our games now and our attacking play.
“When you go 2-0 up and it goes back to 2-2 everybody is fearing the worst, but my lads went again.
“That just shows the character amongst the group is there. That’s quite a few points now from coming back.
“To go again and get the winner, I’m delighted with them.”
Adebayo has been in superb form of late, netting in four of his last five games - taking his tally to eight this season, the same number of strikes in the whole of last season.
But Clarke was eager to praise the unsung heroes after a third win in a row.
“It was good play and another goal from the big fella,” he added.
“The big fella is doing well. The goalscorers always get the credit but look at players like (Liam) Kinsella and (Alfie) Bates and their last few performances in midfield.
“There’s been some good performances from the group of players and collectively now in the final third in the last few games we’ve done what we haven’t been doing this season and that’s finishing more of our opportunities.
“It’s nice to have Josh (Gordon) back as well. The lads that have come on have done well as well.
“We have to keep going. It’s been a good couple of days for us and it’s nice to get a few wins on the bounce but we have to reset now.
“We’ll enjoy it and then get back to work.”
Cameron Norman, who delivered the cross that led to the own goal to put them 2-0 up, added: “We’re absolutely buzzing to get another win on the board to keep that run going, which we feel like we deserve.
“This was a different win. The boys showed good character to go 2-0 up and we’re a bit disappointed to see it go to 2-2.
“But that shows the character in the group to get that back. It’s a win that we think we thoroughly deserve.”
