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Darrell Clarke has left his position as Bristol Rovers manager.

The Gas have decided to part company with their long-serving manager following a poor start to the campaign which has seen the club drop into the relegation zone.

Yet their struggles were not helped by off-the-field speculation, with no progress being made over the club's much-promised new stadium and training ground.

After Saturday's 4-0 loss to Doncaster Rovers, Clarke spoke out about the problems following a board meeting, and predicted that not only would the promised facilities not happen, but that his budget would also be cut.

It proved to be his final words as Gas manager - read below for what he had to say in full.

Darrell, that must have been a very difficult watch from the sidelines?

Certainly. I’m man enough to apologise, it’s not good enough. We created plenty of chances and didn’t score, they took their chances. Four-nil, people will say it wasn’t, but it was a 4-0 as we got beat 4-0. Same as I said to my players, in crucial moments at times in games, we’re having golden opportunities, we’re not taking them. To lift it, to go the other side for it to go for you, you’ve got to take them. It changes the game, the complexion, for me, that’s probably been coming. Defensively we’ve done all right, not as good just recently, previously, but today we were awful.

In the second half you saw the players wilt.

Yep. Obviously Donny were feeling confident and passing it around, making us look silly. It’s not good enough.

So how do you change it?

Working hard, keep going. The only people that are performing at this football club at this minute are the supporters. I cannot fault, for one minute, the support that I’m getting, that the players are getting.

I just said to my players, go home, see what you’re giving for the shirt, because it’s obviously not enough. Like I say, when they represent this football club, I’ve been here a long time, you’re representing the badge, and it’s nowhere near good enough. It starts with me, nowhere near from me, nowhere near good enough from the staff, nowhere near good enough from the players, the only people that are performing are the supporters.

What can you do to try and lift it?

You’ve got to keep going, keep working. I’ve got to pick the right team, right formation first and foremost, I’ve got to get that right, but you’ve got to take your chances. Take opportunities. That’s one thing we fell really, really sort from. Seventy-five points to play for, 25 games, obviously against Gillingham I was very emotional, I wanted clarity from the powers that be about where we’re going and I got that.

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You had a board meeting yesterday, what was the upshot of that?

The upshot is exactly where I thought we would be. Players will have to go out for me to get a couple of loans in, so there’ll be a few tweaks in January, so I know exactly where that is. I know exactly…

I’m being honest now, they try and tell me different, but I can’t see the training ground or stadium happening any time I’m manager and, for me, I think it’s the other way. There’s going to be cuts. You have to deal with that. As a manager, you sit here and go right, what do I do? I’ll do what I’ve always done when I’ve been at this football club, I’ll fight for the supporters. My efforts might not be good enough but I’m going to be in there, pitching, fighting, scrapping for them, to be honest with you. Like I said before, this club in the last 30, 40 years, has not had – the only people that hurt are the supporters. Until people say they’re going to do what they’re going to do and get it done, and build, the club will yo-yo from League One and League Two.

Listen, I’m saying that as an underachieving manager, I have a mid-table budget in League One and I ain’t succeeded this year, I’m underachieving. In the last two years I’ve had a bottom six, bottom eight, budget and we’ve over achieved. This year I’m under achieving as a manager and I’ll take that. My signings haven’t been good enough, without a shadow of a doubt I ain’t shirking responsibility, but it still needs that backing, pushing, facilities to move forward and we’re still in the same place.

People think I have a problem with the board, I don’t have a problem with the board, I just tell them exactly how it is, I speak to you guys as I speak to them, no problem. I don’t go and shirk away in the boardroom, I tell them it’s not good enough, the club’s going backwards. I said that to them yesterday. It is because we’re fourth bottom on the pitch but it’s going backwards because nothing’s happening.

All I say, and I say it to them, is clarity – the supporters of this football club just want clarity. They support you through thick and thin and they’re the only ones – the only ones – who are performing at this football club as it stands. My message to them is I’m defiant and over my dead body, I say it again. Players’ days off are cancelled, that’s been cancelled for a while now, they don’t have a day off, they don’t have a weekend off, and that will continue until they start turning it round and performing in a better manner.

You talk about money being tight and budgets being cut, is that something that will happen imminently?

I think it will be over the next 12 months but I have to deal with that. It doesn’t matter, the bottom line is it’s the highest budget I’ve had since I’ve been manager, that’s football, it’s a mid-table League One budget, we still have to overachieve to get into the top six, which clubs are capable of, I’ve done it for the last three years myself.

In League Two it was a mid-table budget, we got promoted, and then the last two years we finished higher than where we were. So that’s what it is, that’s where we are, that’s clarity. Whether that upsets a few, it probably will do, but I always think honesty, integrity, letting people know the score is the best way of dealing with it.

If you’re looking at a couple of loans for January, are you confident you’ll have the wiggle room to get what you need to get you out of trouble?

Listen, I’m hoping so. We’re going to have to get rid of four or five, or move four or five on, that’s not rocket science. We need it at the top end of the pitch, don’t we? You can’t defend how we did today, you’ve got to be defensively better, but certainly at the top end of the pitch it’s criminal. Yet again we got beat 4-0 with more shots, more shots on target and more corners than the opposition. It’s déjà vu.

Do you think what’s happening off the pitch is affecting the players at all?

I just think clarity needs to come out. It’s not hard, is it? It’s not hard to say for me. I might get my knuckles wrapped, I don’t know, but what you need to build and what we’re trying to build is a siege mentality. The Rovers that survived for so long under that siege mentality that we’ve got to produce now, move it out and get it out in the open. They tell me things, they’re still working on this and this, but I don’t see anything progressing. I say this to them as well. We’ve just got to siege mentality, do what we’ve got to do as Bristol Rovers and as we are and try and stay in this league. That will be a bigger success than certainly getting promotion out of League Two, I’m not sure about the Conference as that was a tough shift. It will certainly be bigger than that. I’ve got a massive job on my hands but I’m going to be in there, pitching, fighting and scrapping.

On the game itself, do you think the second goal coming just before half-time was the killer blow?

It was poor goals defensively. The first one was a great strike, a worldie, close him down but not a lot else. The rest of the goals can be defended. Defend better, but then we go up the other end and smash the post from eight yards, we have other opportunities and don’t take them to change the momentum, to change the mood in the ground, you get that and then all of a sudden it changes and it becomes a fortress again. So, certainly, the fans can’t give any more than what they’re giving and we’re letting them down big style.

You say you’re defiant, but you must surely be disillusioned with the powers that be after you signed your five-year contract?

I don’t think anyone would blame me for walking out the door, would they? I’m a fighter, my pride doesn’t let me do that. You’ve just fought all your life. I’m emotional sometimes after the game, like I was after the Gillingham game, but, for me, I want to get clarity out there. That’s where we stand as a football club, let’s try and f***ing move it forward.