On Tuesday evening, Cheltenham Town fired another blank in what is turning out to be one of the EFL’s darkest comedies.
If it wasn’t a fact that they are now still without a goal in their opening 11 games, it would be seen as a humorous script written up by the most dry-witted of playwrights.
Darrell Clarke is the new boss of the Robins and after his first game in charge, he could see the mountainous task ahead of him. The 2-0 home defeat to fellow strugglers Fleetwood Town, who gained only their second win of the season and remain in the bottom four, was made more notable in that they have now entered the record books.
Into the record books
Coventry City in 1919/20 and the Hartlepool United side of 1992/93 both went 11 games without scoring. Cheltenham has now made that duo a trio. When Wade Elliott left the club and Clarke took over, some fans would’ve been hoping for the mythical new manager bounce. But the script so far this season has not changed from its gallows humour.
“It’s my first game, but I am not going to keep coming out and saying it’s not good enough when everybody knows it’s not good enough. The players need my support, they need all the support they can get from me and my staff moving forward because we are a million miles off.
There are young lads out there who at times look a million miles away. There is a lack of confidence, picking wrong options. The only way you get through these things is with a hell of a lot of hard work on the training pitch moving forward,” the new boss told Gloucestershire Live.
On Saturday, they face Derby County, a team that hasn’t lost in four games, sitting just outside the playoff places and have conceded the joint fourth-lowest number of goals in the league so far. Already, it looks like a daunting task.
The Cheltenham Town boss continued:
“I don’t think it was a lack of effort, to be honest. It’s just a real lack of quality through the team. Wrong decision-making, players looking like little boys in a really tough league.
That’s the reality of it and same as I said to my players in there, they are going to get all my support to try and turn them into men and into footballers because for a lot of them this is going to be a really harsh lesson.
I am old enough and ugly enough to understand where we are at, but I will get it right, I know I will.”
Writer’s View
Darrell Clarke does seem to have the nous to turn this around, and you get the feeling that once one goal goes in then the burden will be lifted and the team will play free of this horrible nightmare run.
It could come this weekend as Clarke will have had more time with his squad to instil a little bit more confidence and cohesion. Surely the script will change soon, and those who witness it will be laughing loudest.
