Clarke watched as the well-backed Valiants took the lead as Leon Legge headed home after twelve minutes of play and would've been delighted to see Elijah Adebayo level the scores just three minutes later as he pounced on goalkeeper Scott Brown's soft save.
The Saddlers went on to fall behind for a second time as Scott Burgess' deflected shot slipped past on-loan Southampton stopper Jack Rose - who replaced an ill Liam Roberts between the sticks - with nine minutes of the first-half remaining.
Despite the Saddlers going on to level via Josh Gordon - the former Leicester City striker netting his twelfth goal of the campaign - Clarke admitted he was unhappy with his defence and wouldn't be offering any 'pats on the back' for taking a point at home.
Speaking to the assembled media, Darrell said; "I’m not happy. In the first-half for me, there’s not a lot in the game. Defensively we were very poor and I wasn’t happy. Second-half I thought we played some outstanding football.
"You won’t get too many pats on the back for a home draw from me. I thought we weren’t aggressive enough in the first half and paid them too much respect - switched off at a set piece again and they score a deflection, where we can do better.
"All of a sudden you're chasing a game again at home and then the response is emphatic and we were really unlucky not to win the game in the end. But you can’t be sloppy like that.
"I think we’re moving in the right direction, don’t get me wrong. But you won’t see me too happy with a home point, certainly with the way we defended in the first-half.
"It was probably a good game to watch for the neutral. Port Vale are a good team, obviously that’s why they’re up there at the minute."