Steve Black column: Two wins

Apr 3 2009 by Steve Black

HI EVERYONE! Two wins on the road since last we touched base – it’s a happy camp as you can imagine!

We travelled down to Hereford last Friday, then straight onto Bristol on Saturday evening to start to prepare for our Tuesday night encounter with Rovers.

A mini-tour of the South-West, and a very productive one at that.

Over the five days we trained, played two games, went to the movies together to see the new film The Damned United about Brian Clough’s tempestuous 44-day reign at our local rivals Leeds United and generally spent a lot of good quality time together.

We spoke of personal and team ambitions, and what we could do to help support each other to achieve those ambitions.

We also had good ‘craic’ – lots of good-natured banter and plenty of laughs!

That’s always a good sign because it’s a fair indication as to whether the squad is in harmony personality wise, and, I can tell you, it’s a resounding yes!

Another priceless Michael Collins goal ensured we took the three points from a dogged Hereford team, and our first ‘double’ as a management team since Lee took over.

It’s a great knack that Michael’s got, and it puts him on nine goals so far if you add that to the returns of Gary Roberts, Ian Craney and Michael Flynn, we are extremely well represented in the goalscoring charts from midfield. Long may it continue!

To clear our thoughts for the Hereford game, Terry McDermott, Brooky (our top kit man) and I decided to go to Cheltenham racecourse for an early-morning walk.

On the way there, we decided we’d spend Sunday afternoon along at the Bristol Rovers ground watching the Bristol v Worcester rugby union clash, but more importantly seeing what state the pitch would be in at the end of the game because of our match there.

I thought I’d give an old pal of mine from my days with the Welsh Rugby Union and British Lions, Alan Carter, a call to see if he could leave any tickets for us.