Darrell Clarke relishing underdogs tag in FA Cup round two

Posted Thursday, November 21, 2019 by PA

Walsall boss Darrell Clarke is looking forward to being an underdog in the FA Cup second round after being given a real fright by non-league Darlington in a 1-0 replay win.

League Two side the Saddlers were given a searching examination by National League North outfit Darlington, but scraped through thanks to striker Caolan Lavery’s second-half winner.

“We’re a million miles away from where I want to get us as a club,” said Clarke, whose side go on to face Oxford in the next round.

“We’re looking forward to the Oxford game now. It will be a totally different game to this one and we probably go into it as the underdogs.’’

Darlington threatened early on through midfielder Will Hatfield and after Walsall had offered menace in return, Michael Liddle also came close for the hosts.

Lavery lifted a chance over for Walsall 12 minutes into the second half and Hatfield brought a stop from Liam Roberts before Darlington’s hopes were dashed by Lavery’s header on 68 minutes.

Darlington boss Alun Armstrong said: “It’s really tough to take to be honest because they weren’t causing us any problems.

“The annoying thing is that it was a set-play that let us down. We probably weren’t good enough in both boxes, and there was a lack of quality in that final third.”