Bristol Rovers beat Cambridge United 1-0 at the Mem on Saturday afternoon
Daniel Hargraves Bristol Rovers reporter
17:57, 23 Aug 2025
Bristol Rovers head coach Darrell Clarke looks on(Image: Tom Sandberg/PPAUK)
Darrell Clarke has confessed that Saturday afternoon was “all about winning” for the fans after Bristol Rovers picked up their first victory of the season, beating Cambridge United 1-0 at the Mem.
Ellis Harrison’s first half finish was enough to secure the three points for Rovers after a underwhelming start that had seen them lose their first three league games, as well as a Carabao Cup first round tie against Cambridge, before drawing 0-0 at home to Oldham Athletic earlier in the week.
The Gas had to weather a bit of a storm as the second half went on but stood firm and limited the Us to few shots, none of which on target.
READ MORE: Bristol Rovers 1-0 Cambridge United live: Gas still have lead in tact in added time
Reflecting on the win, Clarke said: “I feel like I played 100 minutes, to be honest with you. Today was all about winning a game for the fans.
“We dug in brilliantly and it wasn’t a comfortable watch for me, second half, or for our fans but they got us over the line today.
“My lads put in a tremendous amount of effort. It’s a big three points for us today, but we move on quickly.
“We defended that box really well,” he continued. “You know, Kacper, Alfie Kilgour; warriors. The lads needed to be today. We’ve had to defend really well second half when they’re chucking everything at us.
“Today’s about getting a win for the fans, but I want them to enjoy it. But wins last about two seconds for a manager.
“I’m not kidding myself about how much work we’ve got to do with the group. But that’ll hopefully come over the next five, six weeks.”
After a EFL Trophy clash at home to Tottenham Hotspur Under-21s on Tuesday, Rovers’ schedule will start to calm down with no midweek match until their next EFL Trophy match at Cheltenham Town on October 7. Their next Tuesday evening game in League Two isn’t until December 9 when they head to Barnet.
“We’ll be changing the weekly plan now moving forward for the next five, six weeks,” the Rovers head coach added. “We’ll be doing a different weekly plan so that the players can catch up with the fitness levels to get us building in what I think is a lot fitter team and there’s loads of reasons why we’re not fit.
“Ellis comes in late in the window. Loads of lads missing loads of football last season. Kamil [Conteh] missed loads of football last season.
“Promise [Omochere] missed loads of football. Joel Senior missed loads of football last season. So even the boys that are here, never mind the boys that are catching up a little bit, werre missing pre-season.
“So we’ve got a lot of work to do with the staff, with the fitness element of the staff as well, and we’ll get pushing on that because I want to see noticeable differences in our fitness levels from now, kicking on to the end of the season.”
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