Bristol Rovers head coach Darrell Clarke is refusing to hit the panic button just yet following his side’s poor start to the season.
The Pirates are still coming to terms with life in League Two following their relegation from League One in May. The club acted swiftly to reappoint Clarke, who had guided the club to two promotions during his first spell in charge between 2014 and 2018.
They opened the campaign with a poor 1-0 defeat against Harrogate Town and followed that with further losses against Fleetwood Town and Chesterfield. Those two results also sandwiched a 2-0 home loss against Cambridge United in the Carabao Cup.
There was cause for slight optimism in midweek when Rovers put in a much improved performance against Oldham Athletic. However, they could only pick up a 0-0 draw, securing their first point of the season in the process.
Clarke Focussed On Improvements
Clarke welcomes Cambridge to the Memorial Stadium for the second time this month hoping to make amends from their EFL Cup exit. Speaking ahead of the game, he reminisced on some of his previous roles, which also had tricky starts:
“I don’t think I’ve ever gone into a situation where I go into a football club where everything’s rosy. There’s always something to fix and it’s always a massive fix. So I’m used to it.
“You go back when I was Salisbury manager and we got relegated two divisions. When I took over, the Rovers one as well. Then going to Cheltenham, hadn’t scored a goal in 11 games. So I’m used to going into things.
“That’s why I don’t get panicky. I don’t really listen to the noise. I just focus on me and my staff, focus on trying to get us better.
“We have to get loads better, we understand that, but I don’t get flustered because this is where I’ve sat before. With the course of that, having as many changes as we’ve had to do, the financial restraints we have to go through to be able to then get on that upward curve.”
Writer’s View
Nothing was ever won or lost in the first four games of the season and Darrell Clarke will still be confident he can deliver some success. He’s had to deal with financial restraints, meaning the players he has brought in will take time to gel. There were glimmers of that during the draw with Oldham and there is a hope that they can build on that tomorrow afternoon. It will be a tricky fixture but one they are capable of picking up at least a point.
