Darrell Clarke believes ‘penny has dropped’ with Walsall striker Elijah Adebayo

After finding his best form at the end of last season, before it was curtailed due to the coronavirus pandemic, the 22-year-old striker continued where he left off this year.

Despite being used sparingly in the cups, he has started both of Walsall’s league games so far, scoring the only goal of the game in the 1-0 win over Grimsby.

For Clarke, it is a case of continuing to develop him, but the boss believes he has the right attributes to succeed.

“You’re hoping he develops with age, he’s still only 22,” he said.

“If you look at the squad in general I have a lot of 22, 23-year-olds, so these boys are still developing and Ade is one of those.

“If he develops like he did for the last two, three months of last season – and he started off with a goal which should do his confidence good.

“He’s the sort of player that has all the tools in the bag and it’s up to him how far he takes his career.

“We’re working hard with him, as we are all our players, but we’ve really been delighted with his personal development over the past three, four months.”

Adebayo’s consistency has been the main stumbling block – but Clarke insists the work both on and off the pitch is coming good.

“He’s a lovely kid, a great lad, a real nice lad but we need him to get angry sometimes,” Clarke added.

“He plays better sometimes when he’s angry and focused but we’re hoping the penny has dropped with Eli.

“We’ve done a lot of work with him mentally and on the training ground.

“When he’s on his game, he’s unplayable and it’s about getting him on his game as much as we possibly can.

“Hopefully the penny is starting to drop on a more consistent basis, not one every five games. Getting the consistent performances is what we’re looking at from Eli.”

Meanwhile, fellow striker Caolan Lavery insists the squad are all singing from the same hymn sheet this year.

“We have a good settled squad now and we’re all on the same page in terms of how the gaffer wants us to play and what he expects from us,” he said.

“It’s put us in a good place for the start of the season and hopefully we can get as many positive results as we can and we’ll see where it takes us.

“I want to do more and score more but to get double figures (last season) was nice and the competition we have here is good.

“I’m looking forward to kicking on again this season.

“As a player and a person you always want to improve year by year.”