Former Bristol Rovers manager Darrell Clarke has issued his gratitude to Gasheads who welcomed him back to the Mem with applause on Saturday when visiting with his Barnsley side.
Clarke took charge of the Tykes last summer after almost leading Cheltenham Town to a miraculous escape from relegation last season and was back in BS7 for the first time since December 2023 when Rovers drew 1-1 with his Robins side.
However, it wasn’t a happy return for the Gas legend with Rovers securing a much-needed 3-1 victory over the Reds in a game which saw Barnsley squander a hatful of scoring opportunities coincided with some outstanding goalkeeping from Josh Griffiths.
The 47-year-old oversaw back-to-back promotions from the Conference, now the National League, up into League One while also leading Rovers to their best league finish since 2000, finishing 10th in their first season back in the third tier in the 2016/17 campaign.
Even though it’s been over six years since Clarke left Rovers, the former Gas manager is always welcomed back to the Mem by supporters with the now-Barnsley boss telling club TV: “I was nearly here five years and obviously a special rapport when we did what we did here. I’m always thankful and I always thank the supporters when I come back. But they know me as well as anyone else knows me, I wanted to win the game.
“I’m disappointed for our fans that came in their numbers and we’ll just have to reset that. I think our supporters will go home as frustrated as I am.”
Barnsley started Saturday’s game much the better side, missing a number of opportunities while also seeing a goal from Luca Connell disallowed. However, everytime Rovers got forward they looked dangerous and eventually broke the deadlock four minutes before half-time as Grant Ward produced a perfect cross for Gatlin O’Donkor to head past Ben Killip.
The Gas gave themselves breathing space with a second early in the second half as Isaac Hutchinson stroke home a pass from James Wilson of all people. Wilson then registered a second assist late on for Ruel Sotiriou to secure the points after Josh Earl had halved the deficit with the visitors squandering further chances.
In the end, Barnsley registered 25 shots with nine on target compared to Rovers’ 11 efforts, of which seven were on target.
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Reflecting post-match, Clarke declared: ““Some games have you massively scratching your head and this was one of them.
“We were dominant for large stretches of the game although fair play to Rovers they did hit us on the counter-attack. But you can’t have as much possession as we had and not take the chances you’ve created.
“As a performance, it was exactly what I wanted to see from my team, going forward. We came to win the game and we will keep attacking the season like this because the lads are giving me everything.
“There was an individual error for the second goal and we just need to tidy up both boxes because this is a frustrating result.”
There were similarities to the two sides’ FA Cup encounter at Oakwell back in November where heroics from Griffiths saw Rovers through normal and extra-time before they were victorious on penalites.
“We’ve had so many chances but their keeper has been unbelievable against us – like he was in our FA Cup tie at Oakwell before Christmas,” Clarke added.
“I recognise people will say it’s a results business and sometimes I have to look at it and I know it will show we did a hell of a lot of things right in terms of possession and dominated a lot of the ball.
“But we have to be better on the turnover because they hit us on a couple of counters which we need to be better on moving forward.”