Darrell Clarke takes positives from new-look Walsall’s start to the season

Walsall boss Darrell Clarke is delighted with how his “massive rebuilding job” is progressing after a late equaliser rescued a deserved 1-1 draw against Forest Green in his first home game in charge.

Former Bristol Rovers boss Clarke – who took over at Walsall in the summer following their relegation from League One – hailed the impact of substitutes Rory Holden and James Hardy.

Hardy, a summer signing from AFC Fylde who played for Manchester City as a youngster, equalised on his English Football League debut with just three minutes left.

He tucked home from close range after Josh Gordon’s overhead kick hit a post to cancel out Joseph Mills’ penalty in first-half stoppage time, awarded for James Clarke’s foul on Aaron Collins.

Boss Clarke said: “We brought 15 players into the club this summer and released 20 professionals. This is a massive rebuilding job and the signs in the first two games are really positive.

“It’s going to take a bit of time to iron things out and get things going exactly as I would like to. But against a team who made the play-offs last year, we’ve edged them on most of the stats.

“We conceded a sloppy goal which is unheard of really from James Clarke, the amount of years that I have managed him (at Rovers and Salisbury).

“I asked the boys for a response. The lads who came on made a difference, which I demand from my subs. Rory and James came on and tried to make things happen.”

Rovers goalkeeper Lewis Thomas made several saves to foil Cameron Norman, Liam Kinsella and Hardy before the late leveller but boss Mark Cooper was unhappy with his side.

He said: “I don’t think we played particularly well today and we probably didn’t deserve to win but when you are 1-0 up you have to see it out and take the three points.

“But we didn’t mark properly in the box, we gave their striker the chance of a chest and an overhead kick and then we don’t follow it in.

“I’m frustrated because we were 1-0 up and we were defending reasonably well without playing well. But we know we have to play better than that.

“We didn’t do enough in terms of how I want us to play. We were just too slow in possession and kept passing the ball backwards, taking the easy way out instead of trying to play forward.

“If you keep turning the ball over and giving the opposition impetus, it does become a fight and we’re not great at that.”