First long journey of the season, And I'll be taking in a new stadium........ however I'll be in good company here as it's a new stadium for everyone as Bristol Rovers are making their first return to Bristol since their exile at Twerton Park in Bath.

Me and the old fella today again....... driving down to Bristol in his Land Rover Discovery, so lets face it, it's hardly a chore. The journey isn't that long really. It's just you spend 2 hours around Stafford crawling along the M6 to Walsall that just takes forever and makes it seem like an expedition over the Andes rather than a football away game, but the sun is shining and we're still in the twilight of summer which makes the football season still bearable.

What doesn't make the season bearable is that we're still winless and goalless in what will be our 4th league outing. It kind of makes the trip down the M5 a twee more anxious as it should be. On entering Bristol, we pass the old stadium, the ramshackle mess of a dogtrack that looks like it is 1 match away from going up in smoke. 75 County fans are making the trip, it seems pitiful I know, but that's how many tickets we got for the game. All becomes clear however as we get to the new ground, The Memorial stadium which is shared by Bristol RUFC...... squatters, you'll never find Stockport sharing with a chase the egg team. First of all there is only 2 stands. No wonder we only got 75 tickets.

It's obviously a big day for Rovers, but when announcing the teams, he prefaces every Bristol player as "Making his home debut......." which get tiring to be frank....... Lots of mutual backslapping by local politicians, dignitaries and Rovers upper echelons.... it's all a bit sick really. In our current form I can't see us halting the party. But we've got to sort the performances out quickly as our once motioned promotion push is quickly becoming a relegation dogfight.

It doesn't get much better either as after 10 mins or so a looping header from a Brizzul player goes over Paul Jones, hits the underside of the goal and bounces over the line. I was bang in line with it and it definately crossed the line, but such is my fair mindedness I still find an adequate response to the linesman as "You're a cheating cunt"

The game is bad, made worse by a complete dick of a referee poncing around like the fairy he is. fussy, and a primadonna he whistles for everything, both for Bristol and for us, not showing any bias, just being a complete dick to both teams and not giving the game any flow.

Half time comes and goes, and Our team emerges from the portacabins / changing rooms (I told you the stadium was shite) with a differing formation and thank the lord god almighty.......... Following a corner the ball pings around for awhile before coming out to substitute John Jeffers who bangs in a complete blob of a shot from 25 yards. The crowd goes fucking berserk! ok, it doesn't but as berserk as 75 lunatics can be. And that's it. we've doubled our points tally for the season with our second draw. 4 games and still no wins, but at least we've got our first goal of the season.