Today.

[normal rules]

First time at vale park for me and my lad today so was looking forward to it.

Dropped the missus off at the shopping centre in stoke and headed to downtown burslem. Got parked next to burslem park which was a nice walk through prior to game. Got in about an hour before kick off , which we later regretted due to the freezing cold temperatures.

 Was quite impressed with ground With what appears to be a mix of old and new there. The away stand is capacious to say the least.

Impressed also with the friendly stewards and kiosk staff, polite and happy to chat despite the freezing temperatures.

Good turnout from the rovers faithful who were in good voice from the off. That stand certainly helps the acoustics.

Their early goal silenced things somewhat. The weather did its best to add to the atmosphere. One minute sunshine, next minute darkness and hail/snow showers.

Pitch cut up like a freshly ploughed field, in part down to the horrendous conditions. It didn't look good at the start to be fair.

The match itself was disappointing from a rovers perspective. Their first goal appeared to just slip under Bywater before bouncing into an open net. The second I will personally put down to the conditions. The Heavens had opened when Bywater had to deal with a 35yd rasping shot, which any other day he would have dealt with. Today the ball seemed to just Slide from his gloves into another gaping net corner.

Their third looked like a good individual effort from their left winger who I understand has just come back from a 9 month injury spell.
It was at this point we left.

Overall a poor team performance. I will only single out Bennett for criticism. Despite his recent resurgence in form with us, he just kept running into brick walls in midfield when there were obvious and simple passing decisions to be had. Really, really frustrating to watch.

As we left the ground we were confronted by a mass of police, the likes of which I have not seen at a rovers away day for some time. I had heard that the game might have been in dispute over PV not agreeing terms with the local police over money etc. Christ, it's no wonder. Talk about overkill. Unless I was missing something I do not see how they could justify that amount of cops for that fixture. That said we exited quickly through burslem park without issue and headed back down the a50 towards sunny Lincolnshire.

Pleased to tick another ground off the list. Disappointed with the result and overall team performance. Rovers had the players, they just failed to turn in a display that was appropriate for the opposition and conditions.

Here's to Tuesday night.

[tommy toes]

We had a walk into Burslem Town centre pre match. There were coppers everywhere there too.