Bristol Rovers manager Darrell Clarke has announced that he will take the blame for the clubs relegation into the Conference.

Rovers' 1-0 at the hands of Mansfield today, ensured that the Pirates would be relegated from the Football League for the first time since they entered it 94 years ago.

The 36-year old was clearly distraught by the outcome and had to be consoled by players, fans and club officials on the pitch. He told BBC Points West "Words can't describe it, I'm devastated. I apologise to the supporters. I'll take responsibility as I picked the team for the last eight games. I didn't get the points that were required in those games. My heart goes out to those supporters."

A distraught Darrell Clarke
A distraught Darrell Clarke

Things for the club were looking promising as they had been on a run of three wins and three draws. However, their form was unable to last and a month later they were back in the race for survival having lost four games in a row.

Clarke was appointed manager March 28th when then manager John Ward accepted the post of Director of Football. The ex Salisbury manager won in his first match for Rovers against Morecombe and went on to watch his side beat Wycombe Wanderers the following week.

The Pirates only needed a draw to cement their position in the league for next season. However, after a loss on their hands and shock results elsewhere, their 94 year long stint in the Football League was over.

He left reporters with this, "I'm not going to look for excuses. It's a 46-game season and we haven't done enough, we had a lot of chances but we didn't take one of them."

A video of the interview can be viewed below

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_sIQlkG_Fw