Clarke looking for Hartpury to continue progressing after pleasing start to the season

Hartpury FC Assistant Head Coach Phil Clarke says he and Head Coach Chris Knowles are looking to continue to progress the club forward, after a positive start to the season.

Clarke and Knowles were announced as the new Management Team to lead Hartpury into the Southern League, after Martin Longworth announced he was stepping down following leading the project through the steps into 4 for the 2025/26 season.

Speaking to Severn Sport’s Buttee’s For Breakfast show, Clarke discussed the decisions to bring him and Knowles in to fill the vacancy and stressed the importance of making sure that any decision regarding the team has to be to benefit the wider football programme and University.

“From my perspective, it was a really easy decision,” said Clarke “When we found out Martin [Longworth] was moving on, it was obviously a few quick decisions with myself, Knowlesy [Chris Knowles] and Marc Richards and we felt we had to focus on how can we keep progressing and moving the football club forward.

When we make decisions on things, we always think about what is best for the programme and how can we progress forward if there is any change.

I think quite quickly, me and Knowlesy had the discussion, we had worked together a lot with the University teams from a coaching perspective for a number of years, so we felt that was a good next step forward to continue on the great work that Martin had done over the years to get the club to where it was and to this point and to keep building and keep progressing,” added Clarke.

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After winning the Hellenic Premier last season, Hartpury have produced a positive start to their Southern League campaign – winning three of their first five league matches, as well as winning their first ever FA Trophy tie.

Now ahead of their Second Qualifying Round tie at home to Portishead Town, Clarke admits that whilst a couple of results may have surprised him and Knowles, the team’s hard work in pre-season is paying dividends as they prepare on a game-by-game basis.

“To a point, yeah [when asked if he could believe how good a start Hartpury have made in a higher level]. I think with the work we put in in pre-season we thought we were in a pretty good place but there’s always the next league, new level, you’re always unsure to a certain extent,” said Clarke.

“But I think we’ve been really, really pleased with how the boys have taken to what we have asked and how they have adjusted to the level.

We’ve surprised ourselves with some of the results, it’s got to be said, but that is all credit to the players and the way they have performed – but we are only early into the season, we’re only five games in we don’t take anything for granted, we don’t think we’ve cracked it or anything like that we just take the next game

We’ve got an important game, the first ever home tie in the FA Trophy in the club’s history, on Saturday, so we are just trying to prepare the team the best we can for the next game and let’s see where we go,” added Clarke.

Hartpury FC welcome Portishead Town on campus on Saturday afternoon for their FA Trophy Second Qualifying Round tie; 15:00 kick off.

Listen to Phil Clarke’s full interview about all things Hartpury FC and the wider football programme on Saturday’s Buttee’s For Breakfast. Live from 9am on Saturday morning.