Darrell Clarke: New Cheltenham Town head coach aims to turn around 'disastrous' start

New Cheltenham head coach Darrell Clarke was in the stand to watch the club's defeat by Lincoln last weekend

New Cheltenham Town head coach Darrell Clarke says he is "under no illusions" about the challenge of taking over at the winless and goalless club.

Clarke takes over with the club bottom of League One, with no wins and having set a new English Football League record of having not scored a goal in 10 games this season.

The 45-year-old was appointed last week following Wade Elliott's departure.

They host Fleetwood Town on Tuesday night for his first game in charge.

"I'm quite honest. I've seen all the videos back, I've seen Saturday's game and we're a million miles off what I think is a decent League One team," Clarke told BBC Radio Gloucestershire.

"I'm under no illusions. I think the table will show you that, it's been a disastrous start for the football club and we have to turn it around, and with that it's easy to say [but] it's a lot harder to do.

"We have to collectively all pull together - togetherness is big - culture, environment, getting everything absolutely spot on so the players can start believing in themselves a bit more.

"There's a mixture of things, a lack of confidence, we've got to look at areas of the club, recruitment, everything has to be looked at to see why we've not had the start we'd have liked, so we have to learn from that and build forward in a positive manner."

Clarke guided Port Vale to promotion to League One before he was sacked last April

Former Port Vale manager Clarke - who left the Valiants in April - said the challenge of the job "excited" him.

However, he acknowledged there was a lot of work to be done if Cheltenham are going to turn their season around. They have taken only one point in 10 games - from a 0-0 draw with Portsmouth on 19 August - and have conceded 17 goals, which is the most in the division.

"I think there's been some unfortunate things: a lot of injuries picked up, the team's been a little unsettled, the personnel have changed a lot, and we've not been able to get that rhythm going for whatever reason," Clarke said.

"That's not knocking Wade, certainly not, he's a great guy, did great for the football club, but we have to look at all these avenues as to why things haven't progressed as we'd have liked in the first quarter of the season."

'Collective responsibility to score goals'

The most glaring area where Cheltenham need to make improvements quickly is in front of goal.

They have surpassed the record previously set by Halifax Town in the 1990-91 season when failing to score in their opening eight league games.

"Goals have to come throughout the team and everyone has responsibility to score goals," Clarke said.

"In general goals have got to come all over our pitch and they haven't come anywhere this season so it has to change, we know that, we have to work on things to be able to do that.

"We have to give confidence and direction, a little bit of something different might just get that spark."

Cheltenham have conceded 17 goals and scored none in 10 league games this season

Clarke guided Port Vale to promotion to League One in the 2021-22 season and also spent four and a half years at Bristol Rovers where he won successive promotions from the National League to the third tier.

He said he would not have taken the job if he did not think he could turn the club around and save them from relegation to League Two.

"I don't think it is a quick fix. There's a lot of work that's needs to be done, there's a lot of things and areas of the club that need to be looked at to make sure that we move in a positive direction," Clarke said.

"I'm hoping we can get the new manager bounce going, but I didn't win for my first seven games at Vale but turned it around and stayed up and got promoted, so I'm a great believer in my work and my methods.

"I'd like to think that most football clubs, I left them in a much better place than when I first started, and I like to think that I'll get that opportunity to do that at Cheltenham."