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And so back to grim reality of the Northern Echo Darlington Arena....

I left home at around 6am - the District line is out of action for engineering so had to catch a local bus to Stratford and then onto Kings X. I hate buses - and after this bus is 15 minutes late I like them even less.

Still, due to my getting up in good time I'm in Da Vinci's for breakfast and have almost finished it all off when Martin joins me.

We're on a busy train north today - not just school holidays but the Edinburgh Fringe is in full swing and so we have lots of actor-luvvie types on the train - I did spot someone relatively famous - Pete Baikie - who was one of the folk behind Absolutely, one of my all time favourite sketch shows, and who has written the theme tunes for quite a few TV and radio shows.

I got chatting to a nice Geordie couple who were sharing our table and found that we had a mutual friend as well as (generally ancient) mutual musical tastes in common (despite their returning north from a U2 gig at Wembley!) so the journey just flew past.

Interesting to see on arrival that new ticket gates have finally been installed at Bank Top station - a bit of a pain but certainly preferable to the useless set of revenue inspectors they had there at the end of last season.

(left) The covered market

Down in the town there was a modest fair in place on the market square - not doing a lot of business but I suppose it was a bit early in the day for that sort of jollity. I nip into the covered market and get some savoury pastries for later.

John Wilson is already ensconced on my arrival at the Quaker House - interesting to see the "For Sale" sign is still up though current licensees Brian and Gary apparently have had their offer accepted. Let's hope that this is the case.

(right) For Ales - very funny...

Inside though it's service as normal- regulars George and Gwen are already in place and Linda is still serving with the usual good choice of beers on offer.

There's a trio from Hambleton Brewery (Stallion, Freckled Warrior and Lager), a brace from Captain Cook Brewery (Sunset and Black Porter) plus Springhead Leveller, Allendale Black Grouse and a seasonal offering from Caledonian Brewery.

I give the Hambleton Lager a try but it has an odd taste - I wonder whether this is their gluten-free lager? I tried their gluten-free ale once and it was not very nice.

John and I are joined by Tony, Colin and then Brian - Tony dispenses the season and match-day tickets he's kindly picked up for us. He also confirms that we should all systems go for our curry evening in a few weeks - more details soon.

We then move up to Number Twenty-2 which has seen the addition of two odd-looking chair-table contraptions in the bar - very odd they look.

Colin and I try the Goodrich Castle from Springhead - it's OK at first but then it's gingery taste starts to cloy and in the end I leave it. Colin moves onto the Monkey Wrench whilst I try a new beer (Old Knottingley?) from the Yorkshire Dales brewery. Much nicer all round...

As ever, the cabs from Station Taxis are on time and we get to the ground twenty minutes before kick-off where the car park looks very empty.

I wander to reception to meet Christine Balford after we'd spoken earlier in the week about my continuing sponsorship of Steve Foster. He'd been accidentally allocated to someone else but he's now back with me for a third term. I'm sure that's a relief for both of us.

(left) Unlikely lads

On taking my seat in block 11, it was clear to see the crowd was not brilliant - there were a few gaps around us where regulars seemed to be missing but maybe they're on holiday. Or moved to get away from me and/or Colin (as in the case of Harry who has moved further down the block).

And then the game. Well, there wasn't a great deal to cheer in the first half - Bury are pretty anonymous apart from the annoyingly-attired Sodje and we don't really make a concerted effort on their goal. The Bury fans claim Knight should have walked for a tackle on one of their players outside the box - looked 50/50 to my eyes.

The second half livened up after Bury took the lead - slack defending again - and the lead could have been doubled except for a goal-line clearance by my man Fossie.

At this point the crowd is getting quite agitated and it's tempting to join in but what's the point? Meanwhile Colin is back in his default mode and is berating the referee - seems fair enough.

In an effort to get a point out of the game, Todd brings on Windass and Main. Young Curtis looks as if he's grown a bit more since we saw him last season and certainly looks a bit more mobile - very encouraging, especially for the Capital Quakers who are now sponsoring his home shirt.

But it's Windass who has the chance to get on the score sheet after Main is taken out by the Bury keeper with seconds remaining. The crowd cheers in relief and then it's back to the groans as we witness possibly the worst ever penalty from a Darlington player as Windass almost passes the ball to keeper Brown. Unbelievable!!

The journey back to London was quiet - no Newcastle fans today as they're kicking off late - Martin and I ate our pies, had a good old moan and then fell into a slumber, thankfully free of nightmare penalty gaffes...