Rub Of The Green

I was spending a long weekend up in Northallerton so I only had the ten minute journey on the train through to Darlo.

And for breakfast it was the delights of Alfie's Cafe (upstairs in the covered market) which does a very tasty full English, all for £3.99. I even got some black pudding thrown in for free.

I needed to walk some of my breakfast off before starting on the lunchtime session so I had a walk along Victoria Embankment and onto Feethams - I'd heard rumours that building work was starting so I thought I'd check it out for myself.

(left) Feethams - I can hear the grass grow

Down at our old ground there was little sign of any activity other than photosynthesis and the twittering of birds.

The ground is still very much overgrown with shrubs and trees starting to get a firm hold in the pitch. I made my way through it all to the Tinshed - not a lot had changed there either except for some new graffiti.

I wandered back into town up Polam Lane which has now been tarmacked - all the old cobbles have been removed which seems a shame but perhaps the urban 4-wheelers can't cope with them?

I popped into Taylors to get Martin a few items for his billy-no-mates journey back to London and then got to the Quaker just as the town clock was striking eleven.

Since my last visit, the stain-glass panels above the bar had been officially unveiled and it certainly seemed to add a bit of class to the place. Not exactly difficult mind...

(right) The stain glass panels in all their glory

I was keen to see whether I'd won the 20 pints on offer for guessing the number of glass pieces used in the panels but alas not. I can't remember my estimates but I wasn't far off the winning figure of 346. Drat!

One further addition to the drinking experience recently added is the colour-coding of the beer menu so that we can see what type of beer is on offer. Simple but effective and very useful.

Today's list included: High House Farm Farmer's Pride, York Centurion Ghost, Jarrow Rivet Catcher, Consett Molten Ale, Westerham Progress, TSA Red Torpedo, Bragdy Conwy Shipwreck IPA, Derwent Whitmell & Mark IPA, Wensleydale Foresters Bitter and Elgood's Indian Summer.

For me, the pick of the bunch was the Progress which is a tasty single hop beer whilst the Red Torpedo was quite odd - a ruby IPA which had neither the good points of a ruby beer or an IPA. A shame as TSA do some very good beers.

Tony arrived next followed closely by his Dad Ray - Tony was then handing out birthday cards as Ray and I share the same birthday though obviously there are a few years between us.

Colin and John Bell arrived together and after a few more beers we moved onto Number Twenty-2 where Colin and I got stuck into a very nice pint of Derventio Cupid.

Down at the ground we got our 50-50 tickets from Mary and then had a wander into the club shop. I was keen to check out the DFC bench coats as they look ideal for winter - however when I tried them on even the XXL size was tight.

Now I know I'm not a slim chap but these sizes do look a bit on the small side. There had been comments about this on the message board recently so something seems amiss. I wasn't the only one in the shop to be struck by this either.

I was out on the pitchside again today though with just with the one camera - the away end was probably the quietest I've seen it for along time with only thirty or so 30 Forest Green Rovers fans making the trip north.

Darlo made the best start of the season with an opening goal after just two minutes and then the lead was doubled ten minutes into the game.

(left) Gary Smith does his Mary Poppins impersonation

The first goal was a low shot from Chris Senior but I wasn't able to see who scored the second.

I initially thought it was a Michael Smith header but it turned out to be an own goal which probably explained our celebrations where no one in particular was mobbed.

From that point we should have had more goals, especially as Rovers looked to have already thrown in the towel, but Darlo took their foot off the gas and even though we continued to press and create chances, we couldn't put the ball into the net.

For their part, Forest Green made the odd foray into our half but failed to do anything meaningful and so we went in at half-time with just the two-goal lead.

Up in block 11, Tony had sent me a text to say he'd won the 50-50 draw with tickets he'd bought just after I'd got mine. Double drat!

I thought that in the second half we would have upped the tempo but not at all - we knocked the ball around easily but failed to seriously trouble keeper Bittner. Rovers forced Sam Russell into one smart save but that was about the sum of their endeavours.

Jamie Chandler replaced Joe Clarke - who'd had a poor game by his recent standards with a few wayward passes although his break-up play was excellent - and after ten minutes on the pitch Chandler had added a third goal with a shot from just inside the box.

The game then ended with Rovers defender Lee Fowler getting a red card after one too many fouls on Liam Hatch who had nothing to show for his hard work except bruises.

Manager Mark Cooper had said he would put the squad through a tough week of training after the Eastbourne episode and it seemed to have paid dividends with some good performances.

(right) Jamie Chandler celebrates his goal

Danny Hone was adjudged to be man of the match by the sponsors though Chris Senior and Michael Smith - who seems to get a little bit better with each game - would both have been in my list of serious contenders.

After the game Mark Cooper was quick to say that he wasn't completely satisfied with the performance and that the players would be in for another full week of training.

Good to see that this performance isn't going to let them off the hook completely but it is pleasing to see the players take a step in the right direction. The key now is to maintain this form against some of the teams at the top of the division.