09:43, 11 Aug 2025<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/0_PPAUK_Bristol_Rovers_v_Harrogate_Town_020825_032JPG.jpg\")
Bristol Rovers head coach Darrell Clarke applauds the fans(Image: Geraint Nicholas\/PPAUK)<\/p>\n
Darrell Clarke has compared this current Bristol Rovers squad to the one he inherited at the start of his first spell in charge 11 years ago after the Gas started their League Two campaign with back-to-back defeats.<\/p>\n
Issues from last season have been apparent in Rovers’ opening two matches after they lost 1-0 at home to Harrogate Town and 2-1 away at Fleetwood Town.<\/a><\/p>\n Following Saturday’s defeat at Fleetwood, Clarke admitted that there were players suffering from mental fragility and some who still have scars from last season, which saw the Gas relegated from League One.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Bristol Rovers verdict: Relegation hangover worsens, Omochere off the mark and an M6 horrorshow<\/a>READ MORE: Darrell Clarke details ‘fragile’ mentality issue at Bristol Rovers following Fleetwood defeat<\/a><\/p>\n Asked how he can fix Rovers’ long standing mentality issues, the Pirates head coach told Bristol Live<\/a>: “Just by getting in their heads. Just by making sure that there’s resilience, something that I stand morally about all the time. Resilience and accountability.<\/p>\n “Just focus on what you need to focus on to make sure your mindset is in a better place because I feel it in the changing room. There are a few boys that are still wounded from last year. They’ve got the scars, but that’s for them to deal with, me to help them deal with that and hopefully they come out the other end because I had a group last time I was here, they did come out of the other end.”<\/p>\n That group Clarke referenced had just been relegated out of the Football League, although the Rovers boss had taken charge in the March.<\/p>\n Join Bristol Rovers Live’s Whatsapp community for all the biggest Bristol Rovers stories sent straight to your phone<\/strong><\/p>\n Bristol Rovers Live<\/a> is now on WhatsApp and we want you to join our community.<\/p>\n Through the app, we\u2019ll send the Bristol Rovers news, live match coverage, team news, transfers, fixtures, analysis and more straight to your phone.<\/p>\n To join our community you need to already have WhatsApp. All you need to do is click this link and select \u2018Join Community\u2019.<\/a><\/p>\n No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Bristol Live<\/a> team.<\/p>\n We also treat community members to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. If you don\u2019t like our community, you can check out at any time you like.<\/p>\n To leave our community, click on the name at the top of your screen and choose \u2018Exit group\u2019.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.<\/a><\/p>\n Click here to join our WhatsApp community.<\/a><\/p>\n The following season, the Gas started slowly in the Conference but turned things around, going on to win promotion via the play-offs before recording a second consecutive promotion into League One the following campaign. Clarke then oversaw the club’s highest finish for the past 25 years – 10th in the third tier.<\/p>\n Rovers will have the opportunity to turn attentions away from the league tomorrow night when they host fellow League Two side Cambridge United in the first round of the Carabao Cup before travelling to one of the promotion favourites Chesterfield on Saturday.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Fleetwood Town 2-1 Bristol Rovers recap: Gas start season with back-to-back defeats<\/a>READ MORE: Bristol Rovers player ratings vs Fleetwood: Omochere off the mark but defeat again for the Gas<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Darrell Clarke confessed that there are still some mentality issues within his Bristol Rovers squad after defeat at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":335307,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,2707,748,46615,393,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-335306","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-bristol","9":"tag-bristol-rovers-fc","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-darrell-clarke","12":"tag-england","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115009294708615587","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=335306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/335307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1744476931_129_0_WhatsApp-Phone.jpg\")
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