diff --git a/vcsh b/vcsh
index 69b6c4cea6187f9d1bca777c507d060bf4352b74..edb91fac2d5e9663fb4e6a5a65e761c777fb3755 100755
--- a/vcsh
+++ b/vcsh
@@ -148,6 +148,7 @@ clone() {
 	git remote add origin "$GIT_REMOTE"
 	git config branch."$VCSH_BRANCH".remote origin
 	git config branch."$VCSH_BRANCH".merge  refs/heads/"$VCSH_BRANCH"
+	git checkout -b $VCSH_BRANCH
 	if [ $(git ls-remote origin "$VCSH_BRANCH" 2> /dev/null | wc -l ) -lt 1 ]; then
 		info "remote is empty, not merging anything"
 		exit