CLARKE HOPING HIS NUMBERS COME UP AS HE LOOKS TO BEAT HIS HOMETOWN CLUB
DARRELL Clarke will be calling bingo numbers for the Port Vale players this evening before calling the shots from the touchline at Wembley in tomorrow’s League Two play-off final.
The Vale head for London this morning, and will then take in a trip to Wembley this afternoon before relaxing with bingo after a week’s intensive preparations for the big game against Mansfield (4pm).
Clarke sees the early look around the national stadium as a useful part of the build up, saying: “It is a good idea. We did it when I was there with Bristol Rovers but we had a little more time then. I actually took them the week before because there was more time between the games.
“It is an opportunity for clubs and I just thought it was good idea. Get all the pictures out of the way because if I see lads on their phones on match day, I will be stamping on them!
“We are there on Saturday to win a football match, I don’t want pictures. Get that out of the way. We are only there 30 minutes and then get over to our hotel and have a good bite to eat and a bit of bingo with the manager.
“The lads are calling for bingo so I will be bingo calling on Friday night with the players and the staff.
Maggie’s Den Number 10! Then the boys will be having a really early night.”
Clarke has confirmed he will be on the touchline despite being sent off in the closing stages of last Thursday’s semi-final win after an altercation with Swindon captain Dion Conroy.
The manager said: “I got fined, which I totally accept. It was my first sending off in over 500 games. The stuff about ‘headbutting’ and all of that was a load of rubbish. It was a bit of argy-bargy, trying to get the ball, I thought it was our throw in. But I shouldn’t have been out of my technical area.
“I take it on the chin, I will live and learn from that and try not to let the emotions catch up with me.”
Clarke and his players are preparing for the game, as they have done all season, trusting that hard work and analysis, knowing their jobs, will pay off when the action begins.
The manager added: “The work this week has been pretty consistent. We enjoyed Thursday night because I think you have to enjoy the fact that you are going to be playing at Wembley. But once that was out of the way, it was down to business. We are working on trying to win the game, with a Plan A, a Plan B…what needs to be done to do that.
“The lads have been focused. We have got all the tickets and all of that stuff that needs to be done
I will be calling at bingo and then the boys will be having a really early night.
out of the way. When players are performing at Wembley, families want 40 or 50 tickets, that is what happens, it is for the families to see their boys out on the pitch.
But we got all that out of the way very early and then the week has been full and intense. The preparation has been the key.”
That preparation includes getting ready for VAR after the EFL decided to use the technology in all this season’s play-off finals.
Clarke added: “It is something else that we have had to adapt to. The decision has been made and we have to crack on with it. We had a half-hour meeting with a VAR referee which I think was quite helpful and we have to adjust to it because that is what has been put in place.”
The Vale boss is from Mansfield and began his playing career with the club.
He said: “Fate has a strange way of showing its hand sometimes. But like Nigel (Clough) said in the week, and I will say it myself, we are there for business. We want to win. We know the carrot at the end of the game could potentially be League One football.
“So, that has been the focus to try to take all the emotion out of it – because there is a lot of emotion – and just focus on the job in hand.”
That job involves trying to get the better of a Mansfield side who were beaten 3-1 at Vale Park in March after the sides drew 1-1 at Mansfield in October. The Stags were struggling near the foot of the table after that draw, but Clarke predicted back then that they would finish near the top once players returned from injury.
He was proved correct and now Nigel Clough’s side stand between Vale and a return to League One after a five year absence.
Clarke added: “He is a great guy. I can’t speak highly enough of Nigel. I get on with him great.
“We are great competitors as well, though, we know that, but we will have a beer after. He is a good man and it is a good club, but all of that comes out of the way. It is about us getting the result.”