Darrell Clarke is optimistic Bristol Rovers can gain momentum and pick up the points ahead of the Pirates’ Sky Bet League Two game against Cambridge United on Saturday.
The Gas claimed their first draw of the season on Tuesday night, ending their three-game losing streak in the fourth tier with a 0-0 draw against Oldham Athletic, with Rovers’ only regret being that they could not turn one point into three after a strong display.
Ruel Sotiriou, Alfie Kilgour and Jack Sparkes all went close to scoring the winning goal, but the Latics stood firm to the test to keep a clean sheet on the road. Despite being winless so far, Clarke is used to challenging situations at the start of his journey with a new club, comparing Rovers’ opening with his first stint at the Gas as well as spells at Salisbury and Cheltenham.
Speaking to the media, the Head Coach reflected on the draw against Oldham, the Pirates’ attacking threat and the clash against Cambridge.
OLDHAM REFLECTIONS
“Like I said to the players after the game, that was us at 75 per cent, and I still expect another 25 per cent on top of that, but it was certainly a lot more promising in terms of the performance as a whole. I think we should win the game, but we don’t win the game. Listen, the performance was okay, we know we’ve got loads of areas to improve on, but it’s a first clean sheet and hopefully it’s a stepping stone ready for Saturday.”
WORKING WITH THE GROUP
“Even if we’ve won some of the games, which we probably deserved to win a couple of the games, but even when you’ve done that, there’s still so many things you need to do when you’re working with a group and you’re trying to go in a fix the many problems that the club’s had over the period of time.
“So, there’s always going to be those times where you need to be improving, and there’s loads of things that have been in the mix that we haven’t quite hit the improvements as we’d have liked, so far, but Tuesday was a decent footing of where we need to be kicking on from.”
SIMILAR SITUATIONS
“I don’t think I’ve gone into a situation where I go into a football club where everything’s rosy. There’s always something to fix, and it’s a massive fix. I’m used to it, and you go back even when I was the Salisbury manager, we got relegated two divisions.
"The Rovers one as well, we go to Cheltenham and we haven'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; my staff and I just focus on trying to get us better, and I mean, we have to get loads better. We understand that, but I don’t get flustered. This is where I’ve sat before.
“We’re all on the same page, myself, Ricky and the owners have what needs to be done, we need to settle things down, we need to build a squad that the fans can connect to and be proud of and over the course of that we’re going to win as many games as we possibly can for that. Those are easy words to say and they’re hard to do, myself and the coaching staff are working night and day to make sure we try and get that flow and that rhythm as quickly as we can, try and get the group connected, try and get the club connected and obviously the players to connect with the fans which is the key, you know that is key for us.
“I felt it Tuesday night, where the momentum’s in the game but the supporters were right with us, and boy am I going to need them, because you could feel the confidence go through to the players, you could feel the energy onto the pitch, does that make sense? So we have to put more performances on like that, that gets them going but they’ve always had this massive part to play and we can do our bit by putting performances that they can get behind and I just felt on Tuesday, if we can get this place going, which I’ve done before, they can be a real asset for us.”
ATTACKING OPTIONS
“Promise Omochere had a great chance to take the lead against Chesterfield, we have one cleared off the line, one off the crossbar, got one around the post, so it’s a great opportunity. Our expected goals have been quite decent; the game is about putting the ball in the back of the net, and we have to do that regularly. Promise is on the back of the season, where he picked up a really serious injury. I've started to see Promise coming back to his best, the player I’d seen when he was at Fleetwood on Tuesday night. Hopefully, he keeps on now, he will do.
“Ellis Harrison can get more minutes under his belt. Fabrizio Cavegn, coming from a foreign country, it’s never easy to set up, but you can see his work rate, and the fans appreciate his work, as he did the other day. We’ve got Ollie Dewsbury, who we think is going to be a little gem for us as well, who’s training hard, waiting for opportunities. So, we’d like to think we’ve got goals in our team, but obviously, we need to start putting the ball in the back of the net. That’s how you win games."
CAMBRIDGE PREVIEW
“You’ve just got to, as I’ve said, just focus on the next game. I think this game will be a totally different game from the Carabao Cup game. There were different reasons why that performance was a very poor one, to be honest with you. But listen, they’ve started well, got a great manager in Neil Harris.
"He’s a great guy, and I have a lot of time for Neil, but they’ll be respectful of us, and Neil’s been around the block like me, and he knows what I’m trying to build here, and they’re competitive. They’ve hit the ground running; we haven’t quite done that on the points return, but hopefully we can, Saturday, get those three points.”
