Walsall defender James Clarke was pleased to make his return to action against Crawley Town on Tuesday night.
The 31-year-old featured for the first time since the beginning of January and impressed on his comeback on what turned out to be a frustrating evening for the Saddlers who suffered late heartbreak as Crawley secured a point with a penalty in injury time.
Clarke is keen to help the team kick on and start picking up results and expressed his delight at making his return.
“It’s nice to get back on a personal note,” he said.
“At the same time, I’d have like to have been in a better position and a better scenario
“Hopefully it’s a bit of a lift to the players me getting back and I can be more involved now, it’s hard to have too much of an opinion watching games when I’m not involved but now I can stamp my authority and my opinions on the games now with all the players.
“We’re all men in there and when you need to be told, you need to be told. That’s a big part of it but we need to start picking up results and take it as a positive that we’ve come here against a team in form and taken a 1-1.”
The Saddlers were just seconds away from picking up a crucial victory at the People’s Pension Stadium and Clarke was frustrated that he couldn’t mark his return with a win and clean sheet after the late penalty saw Crawley equalise.
“It’s massively frustrating, it feels like a loss,” Clarke commented.
“They’re in form, we’re out of form and we need to start picking up results.
“A 1-1 away from home you’d say isn’t the worst result but then you look at the way the game goes, 1-0 up with five seconds to go, we’ve got to be winning them.
“That’s been made clear to us and the boys have got to know that. Decisions go against us but its play off situations that build up to that scenario. We’ve got to be better to see it out but we’ve been punched a bit really.”
The Saddlers turn their attention to Saturday’s trip to Bolton Wanderers.
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