Howard narrowly beats me into Da Vinci's for breakfast and then Martin arrives with just enough time for a cup of tea. Once on-board, it's clear to see that the North-East's Big Three are not playing today - plenty of room on the train. And despite all the bad weather, no problems on the track.
Today also marks the first day in charge for East Coat Main Line who took over from National Express at a minute to midnight on Friday the thirteenth.
This is, of course, the government in the form of operator Directly Operated Railways so it will be interesting to see whether things will actually improve. It might be nice if they can actually get the buffet open before we get to Stevenage for starters...
The journey is fine and we arrive on time. I suddenly realise that I've left my season ticket at home - so much for being back in the groove - but a quick call to Peter Cook in the ticket office soon sorts that out - they'll happily print a replacement for me.
The queue at Taylors isn't too large and I'm soon in possession of a host of pork, steak & kidney and fruit pies having taken orders beforehand.I'm welcomed like a long lost son in the Quaker and it's good to see that the beers on offer are as varied as ever.
Gary and Brian have now fully taken over the Quaker and the For Sale sign has been taken down. Gary was telling me that he's putting friends and punters to good use, getting them to bring back barrels when they're off travelling to other parts of the country. Sounds like a good idea.
And they're also going to be re-opening the room upstairs which was rarely used of late - should help with some of the over-crowding they can get on an weekend.
The choice on offer includes : Corvedale Brewery's Molly Morgan and Winter In The Sun; Brew Master from 1648; Brentwood Brewing's Marvellous Maple Mild; Tamar Best Bitter; Otter Head; Old Raby Ale from Village Brewer and Matfen Magic from the High House Farm Brewery.
The Spitfire in question refers to a plane built after the townsfolk raised over £5000 back in 1940 - the story is covered in some detail here for those that are interested.
Howard arrives shortly after me and then I get a text from Colin Fletcher - the M1 is closed and he can't get to Doncaster to catch his train. So I'm not to get him a pie. Too late there but I'm sure it'll not go to waste.
And then another text, this time from John Bell - he's at the Brittania where they have a couple of stouts on, including one of my favourites, Titanic Stout - and I suspect he's trying to get me to deviate from my routine. I don't think so...
Howard departs to go walkabout in the way that blokes of his age do while I head onto Number Twenty-2. Not too busy so I get myself a stool at the bar and get chatting to a guy from Leeds about rugby league and the chances of a victory tonight over the Aussies at Elland Road - very slim.
Durham Tony and then John pop in and I have some very nice Coffee Porter that they've got on today - can't remember who brewed it but it was local - just a hint of coffee which is how I like it.
Down at the ground I pick up my replacement ticket but can't get a programme - they appear to have sold out. I meet Brian and we wander in to find that there's seems to be a few more people in blocks 11 and 12 today despite some of our little group being AWOL today.
John W is cruising in the Med with wife Bev whilst local retail magnates Tony and Lesley are following their NFL team in San Diego.
More new faces in the squad today - Nathan Mulligan and Stewart Giddings making their debut - and by the time we'd sat down and got sorted we'd actually scored.
Not for the first time in his career, Rotherham reject and thug-at-large Guy Branston took out Diop just outside the box. Branston protested his innocence to the ref - David Davis carried on and took the free kick quickly, passed to Mulligan who back heeled it to Curtis Main who calmly shot past the Burton keeper.
Have we peaked too early? That's always the fear especially given the number of clean sheets we'd previously kept in the league so far - none!
Darlo continued to push forward for most of the half and Miller went close with a header - this was starting to look quite positive.
Burton looked stronger though as we got to half-time - it ended with another bad challenge from Branston - quel surprise - who lead with his elbow in a challenge against Diop who was floored for a while. Those near the tunnel saw the egg-sized bump on his head when he came off for treatment. The referee thought nothing of it though - much like us in respect to his performance - and he was the centre of attention when the players came off at half-time.
In the second half, Darlo were under the cosh for large periods. Just after the restart Branston went close with a header and Liversedge had to make several smart saves. The defence looked a lot stronger today though - Miller and Foster back to form and Giddings breaking up Burton's breaks down the wing.
The referee continued to perplex Darlo players and fans alike with some very odd decisions and it all started to get a bit fraught.
Thankfully, the tension of the onslaught from Burton and the poor refereeing is broken by the chanting from a group of kids in one of the boxes behind us (and good to see a lot of the boxes in use).
My favourite was "The Referee's A Sausage" though I do my best to tell them what word they should really be using. It's just a matter of time I suspect.
Sub Dan Groves could have made it 2-0 late on and saved us a few grey hairs but his effort was cleared off the line.
The defence continued to hold out and the relief is palpable when the final whistle blew.
I rush out to catch the bus back into town - we're on a later-than-usual return train to London and so I'm off back to Number Twenty-2 to bask in the glow of my first win of the season.
Martin joins me for a couple of pints of Wensledale Bitter and then we head up to Bank Top for our train. It's very quiet and we have a table to ourselves and once we've had our pies I'm dead to the world...
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