Darrell Clarke tells Cheltenham to ‘enjoy the moment’ after first win of season

Darrell Clarke urged his Cheltenham players to enjoy the moment as they finally ended their wait for a win this season with a 1-0 victory over Cambridge.

The game was settled by Liam Sercombe’s sublime goal in the fifth minute, earning the Robins their first three-point haul of the campaign at the 13th attempt.

It also secured Clarke’s first victory since being appointed as boss at the end of September.

Clarke set his team the target of 15 wins to survive this season and he was delighted to see the first one ticked off.

“The club has never stayed in League One for four successive seasons before,” Clarke said.  “That is our aim as a football club and we want all the fans to buy into that.

“Yes, we’ve had a disastrous start that’s made it very difficult for ourselves, but you can see the lads today get a standing ovation coming off the pitch because the fans know the players have left everything out there.

“So, one of 15 wins down and onto the next, but I want the lads to enjoy the moment as well. Then it’s back to work on Monday.”

Experienced midfielder Sercombe, who played under Clarke at Bristol Rovers, beat goalkeeper Jack Stevens with a deft chip from 20 yards.

It was only the bottom-placed Robins’ second league goal of the season, but they are already showing signs of improvement under Clarke.

They had picked up a creditable 1-1 draw with Derby County in their last league outing and they started well against a Cambridge side who were winless in six.
Liam Smith forced a save from Stevens a minute before Sercombe’s breakthrough and Tom Bradbury was also close in the 11th minute.

Rob Street’s header from Sean Long’s crossed drifted just past the far post before half-time.

James Olayinka tested Stevens early in the second half, but Cambridge were close a leveller when Michael Morrison’s close-range header cleared the bar in the 70th minute.

Street saw another headed effort turned over by a flying Stevens three minutes later and Smith was denied by Morrison’s block late on, but Cheltenham had done enough to end their 175-day wait for a win.

Cambridge boss Mark Bonner admitted his team need to rediscover the form that saw them win four of their first six league games this season.

“It’s a brilliant finish from Sercombe, who is a top player,” he said.

“We have to get our performance levels back to the first three games of the season.

“You look at a batch of games where you think you can pick up points, but in the latest batch we’ve picked up just one.

“In the first half we wanted the players to be more direct and we knew it would be difficult.

“Cheltenham got a good point against Derby and you can see they are playing for their new manager.”