The beginning of the 2014-15 season and Cheltenham fans were not in the most optimistic of moods. We’d ended last season poorly, finishing in 17th place, a little too close to the bottom two for our liking, and had lost our beloved goalkeeper Scott Brown to Aberdeen. New signings had come in, but for most of them, they were gambles, players with something to prove rather than proven quality. We’d also just been comprehensively outplayed by Kidderminster and even our most optimistic of fans were tipping us for a mid table finish at best.

Bury meanwhile went into the game as the fancied team for the season. They’d spent big and brought in the likes of Ryan Lowe, Pablo Mills and Kelvin Etuhu. They’d finished the past season strongly and were in confident mood. Add the fact that Cheltenham Town do not tend to fare well up north and the majority of fans were hoping we’d just lose with our dignity intact.

The journey for me was roughly a three and a half hour one. It began in Oakham at around 20 past 9, and took me first to Leicester, without much problem. Then from Leicester, I was bound for Sheffield. This train was somewhat packed and it took until people got off at Derby for me to nab a seat. My first thought when I got to Sheffield station was that it was very breezy. I also noticed that the platform for the train to Manchester was extremely full. When the train did arrive, I did have a worry that I’d actually not make it onto the train. It was one of those annoying train journeys where there are actually seats but no one can actually move anywhere. I myself could not have moved far if I’d wanted to, as I was blocked in by suitcases on either side. Mercifully I did manage to make my way off the train at the designated stop.

 

The train was very full.

Manchester saw my first experience of the metrolink/tram service. Pretty much like the London Underground and I managed to navigate it without any hitches. So onto Bury and it was a pleasant walk to the stadium on what was a lovely sunny day. I found a pub called The Staff Of Life and enjoyed my first pint of the day, a John Smiths, while watching the second half of Sheffield United V Bristol City. During this time, news reached me of the line up. 3-5-2! With Craig Braham-Barrett playing too. Risky, I thought. It could backfire spectacularly.

Onto the game then, and I started off by having a cheese pie and a bottle of cider. Just before kick off, the number of fans in the away end was very little. There’d been a crash on the M6 and the supporters coach was somewhat delayed. This was the scene that greeted me as I headed to take my seat.

 

 

In the end I decided to go for the top row, in the middle, in line with the goal.

Six minutes in and new signing Asa Hall went down with a calf injury, and his participation in the game came to an end. Promising young midfielder Joe Hanks, who’d performed admirably in the final two games of last season, came into the fray. The sign of things to come? I hoped not. For the first twenty or so minutes, nothing too much happened. Bury had a lot of the ball but did nothing to really trouble our new stopper Trevor Carson. The atmosphere in the away end was somewhat subdued, probably due to the lack of numbers. That all changed about 25 minutes in, when the coaches finally arrived and around a hundred fans walked in, greeted by cheers and it gave the travelling faithful, and maybe the team too, a lift.

We had the ball in the net after about half an hour, but there was adjudged to have been a foul in the build up. From my position it did look like a foul, but having watched a video of the incident, it did look more like two Bury players had accidentally collided with each other.

It didn’t matter though because shortly afterwards, Byron Harrison and Terry Gornell linked up well and Harrison teed up Hanks who placed a beautiful strike into the top corner to net his first goal for Cheltenham. The celebrations were a joy to behold as you can see in the video below.  Always good to see a team celebration rather than an individual dance or something, shows togetherness.

 

More of the celebrations.

It was clear that the second half would be a backs to the wall job and that Bury would come out fighting, but there was something about this Cheltenham side that wasn’t apparent last season. We played as a team. Players threw bodies on the line and defended as though their lives depended on it. The 3-5-2 formation was working wonders and Steve Elliott, Troy Brown and new signing and captain Matt Taylor were imperious at the back. Jason Taylor, who I’d expected to never play for the club again after being transfer listed at the end of last season, played like a man possessed, chasing, harrying and not giving his opponents a moment of peace. Even Braham-Barrett had a commendable game in the left wing back slot.

There were some scary moments-Matt Richards cleared one off the line and Trevor Carson made some splendid saved. I was impressed with Trev, he commanded his box well and took care of any crosses or balls into the box with ease. I think he’ll be a more than adequate replacement for Scott Brown.

For all Bury’s attacking intent then, we stood firm and were able to celebrate a memorable opening day victory. A fantastic performance and it turned out Yates’ tactics actually worked out perfectly. I don’t think I can think of a criticism of any player. I won’t get too carried away, and this will most likely be a season of as many downs as there are ups, but the team proved a lot of people wrong today, me included  Hopefully we can use it as a springboard for a more than decent season.

 

Carson celebrating again.  Thanks must go to Cheltenham fan hEaLeR_ctfc for these videos. A wonderful service.

One thing I did think, is that while the 3-5-2/5-3-2 formation works great for games like this one, where we’re expected to be on the back foot and hopefully nick something on the break, and should definitely be used at Brighton in the Capital One Cup on Tuesday, it may need tweaking for home games against teams we’re expected to be on the front foot against. There wasn’t much pace in the team today-Braham-Barrett is reasonably quick and Harrison is no slouch, but for games against teams like Exeter and Morecambe at home, we may need a bit of electric pace to unlock a stubborn defence. In Italy, a few teams play 3-5-2 but with wide midfielders instead of wing backs, so you’d maybe have new boys Andy Haworth and Koby Arthur on the flanks. However this would mean no spot for the excellent Lee Vaughan, who for me should be one of the first names on the teamsheet. The best option would probably to go for a 4-3-3/4-5-1 formation with two wingers playing either side of Harrison.

On to the journey back then, and although the Bury metrolink wasn’t very informative when it came to what time my tram was, I managed to get there in time and get to Manchester for the journey back. At this point I was pleasantly surprised that the journey had so far passed without a hitch. In fact the only out of the ordinary thing that happened was a man talking to himself on the tram to Bury. This involved repeating each stop after it was announced. “The next stop is Radcliffe.” “Heh, Radcliffe, yeah.”

There was a train to Sheffield leaving at 6:20 but it looked pretty full so I decided to go for the one about 20 minutes later. It arrived in Sheffield and there I noticed the first hitch of the journey. The train to Leicester was getting in at 9:31. I needed to be in Oakham, where I was getting picked up, for 9:45-arriving at 9:31 would mean missing the connection. Thinking on my feet, I looked for trains to Peterboorugh. The plan had been for my dad to drive to Peterborough to collect my brother and his girlfriend from their trip to London for her 18th then pick me up from Oakham on the way back. Thankfully, there was a train to Peterborough (changing at Retford) which would arrive at half 9, pretty much the time their train arrived. Even more thankfully, due to the fact that there was only 3 minutes before the train left, I was only a few feet away from it, would have been somewhat disastrous if it had been on the other side of the station. So on I got for the train bound to Lincoln Central, which really was a glorified bus. I was seated near a woman with an annoyingly overexcited toddler who kept jumping around and climbing over his poor mum. When they got off, I was joined by some rowdy Nottingham Forest fans. The ticket inspector who checked my ticket wasn’t the friendliest of people, and didn’t seem to understand when I told her how I’d had to get this train as a sort of spur of the moment thing, but apparently the ticket I had was OK, which surprised me as I was fully prepared to pay for a ticket if I had to. My main hope was that I didn’t get a fine-I hoped not because I did have a valid reason for not having a ticket. Anyway, after a few minutes in Retford, it was off to Peterborough then onto home after a long, but extremely enjoyable day out.

It turned out my mistake had actually been that I hadn’t checked the route on the return. I’d assumed I was meant to go the same way I’d came, but I was actually supposed to go to Crewe, then to Nuneaton, then back to Oakham. In the end though, it worked out well as it meant dad didn’t have to go out of his way, my train was timed brilliantly, and it didn’t cost me any extra. I have to say all in all, it was a very lucky day.