The pies, the pies...

Our shortest journey to an away game means we can go via public transport today. We can just hop on a bus at the end of the road and drive straight into Nottingham City Centre. Perfect. Except for all of the other people who decided to travel from Ilkeston to Nottingham at the same bloody time on the same bloody bus. We end up penned-in like battery hens between a group of giggling, mobile phone obsessed teenage girls and a family of Neanderthals who appear to need to shout at each other, swear at everything and berate their screaming children for not eating their Greggs pasties.

This doesn't bode well for an enjoyable day. Thrashed 5 - 1 by Chesterfield in the week and about to play against the richest club in the league - who are unbeaten and unscored-against at home this season. Notts County are the oldest football league club and we are the youngest. And I fear, like the scruffy kids on the bus, we are in for a slapping.

We dismount and wander down to the King William IV near the Ice Stadium for a quick pint of something rare and delicious before the walk to the ground. As we get nearer I realise just how close the two football grounds in Nottingham really are; Forest's City Ground just over the water from The Magpies' Meadow Lane. Smaller than the City ground but still impressive to someone used to travelling to Vauxhall Motors and Leigh RMI over the past few years.

There is a definate excited buzz about the place; 'pies supporters in their black & white stripes are in abundance and it's great to see so many youngsters and families enthusiastically supporting their club. Burton have been given the Jimmy Sirrell Stand, dedicated to County's most famous and influential manager - a Brian Clough character of sorts who took them into the old League 1 (now The Premiership) in 1980-81. There are about 1,800 Brewers who have made the trip over which is not a bad turn-out. The atmosphere is electric and expectation is high amongst the home fans; we appear just to be here for the party. Former Arsenal, Spurs and England player Sol Campbell is paraded onto the pitch before the match - a new signing for moneybags Notts and a sign of things to come for the club now bankrolled by a multi-millionaire oil baron with a penchant for wearing tea-towels and from a country where human rights mean very little if you are gay, female or just happen believe in the wrong type of sky pixie (or none at all for that matter). Sven Goran-Erricson is also at the club. Like Sol, he went to Notts County for the passion, the heritage, the challenge. The 5 yr £200,000 a week contract was just a bonus obviously.

Anyways, on the football:

It's a bright start for "You Pies" but Burton are playing much deeper than in previous games, defending from the front row and limiting Notts to moving the ball about in their own area. It's not pretty, but it's effective and keeping a clean sheet today would be a major achievement for the Brewers. We go in at half-time nil-nil and most of us in the away end will go home happy with that. The natives are looking restless though and even the stewards seem to want to try and take it out on a few young Brewers fans who are doing no more than shout "Boo" Notts striker Lee Hughes - infamous for causing the death of a poor bloke when he couldn't be bothered to walk to the pub.

Second half and we go one-nil down to a ball over the top chipped-in from outside the box. It's clearly offside. Miles in fact. A dead-cert, stonewall, definate offside which only a man with a mixed green salad for a brain could have missed. Mr Lettuce of Tewksbury misses it. But that's only the tip of the iceberg.

Notts have adopted the standard League 2 tactic used when the wind is blowing away from you. "Kick the ball very hard in the air towards the opposition goal and run very fast after it." must have been Sven's inspiring team talk at half time. Ulrika Johnson taught him everything he knows about football.

Burton soak up the pressure like a hot bath and despite Mr Cos missing out on the fact that "5 pints" Hughes was sat on top of the cross bar, he failed to raise his flag. The Burton crowd gave him the dressing down he deserved.

Peschisolido reinforces the Burton team with three substitutes and we look to go forward more, in search of an elusive point. John McGrath sets-up Richard Walker on the left, who cuts in past his marker, turns and shoots and hits the top corner of the net. Uuuuuuuuu-llllll-ri-ka-ka-ka-ka! Pandemonium in the Jimmy Sirrell stand as we celebrate like we've won the World Cup and the rest of the ground goes very quiet indeed. Maghoma still had time to see a shot bounce off the inside of the post in injury time but in reality, a draw is what the game deserved and we go home the happier bunch of supporters.

After the game, one group of Magpies fans are stating that they "Made Burton look good" and that "Wait until Sol is match fit". In the words of Lance Corporal Jones, "They don't like it up 'em Captain Mainwaring".