Darrell Clarke frustrated with officials following Crewe defeat

A controversial goal from Eddie Nolan separated the sides with the defender firing in from an offside position after Perry Ng had seen a shot blocked.

Walsall’s players were adamant Nolan was offside, but referee Alan Young seemed to imply the ball came off a Saddlers player and let it stand.

Over the course of the 90 minutes, though, the Saddlers got into a number of dangerous positions but failed to capitalise.

And that meant Clarke was left frustrated with the referee and his team.

“The goal is offside,” the boss said.

“He is one-yard off on the shot and four yards off when the ball is flicked around the corner.

“The officials have got that massively wrong. But let’s not paper over the cracks.

“We should have been a lot more ruthless in the final third - then we haven’t got a case to answer.

“We have had numerous corners, lots of territory, we have broken their line plenty of times.

“But we have not looked after that final ball so I am frustrated.

“I’m frustrated with both the decision and our end product.

“We certainly deserved something from the game but you don’t deserve anything if you don’t put the ball in the back of the net.

“The amount of territory we had at times - to be coming away with a duck egg - no goals, is very disappointing.”

Clarke admitted Walsall went too long when they were chasing the game.

“Sometimes it’s a bit too easy to just lump it in there,” he added.

“We have got to make angles and trust our players to isolate themselves one-v-one.

“We didn’t do that enough. We were a little bit panicky and a little bit edgy but that is what you get with a new ground.

“There is endless stuff we need to work on in training. I keep saying it, but we’ll keep chipping away.”