Ground Zero

Pride of Bristol 0 Impoverished poor relations of Merseyside with nine fit players and assorted schoolboys 1.
And it has taken me three days to find the words after the utter disappointment of my first visit to the Mem this season.
Why oh why, do we do it to ourselves?
Why do we let ourselves get carried away with optimism, when in the back of our minds is the nagging suspicion it will end in tears?
Two decent wins in a row and we were on a roll. We only had to turn up to the Memorial Stadium on Tuesday to get another three points and push on towards the League One summit.
At least, that was the way most of us viewed the home game against rock-bottom Tranmere.
I was so excited about getting my first glimpse of our new team.
The summer signings were starting to gell, we had a target man, 11 fit players and the confidence that back-to-back victories brings.
And for 20 minutes we were good - no argument. We looked slick, skillful and capable of tearing apart the opposition at will. But we didn't, and slowly the doubts crept in.
As I stood watching the rain come down with my mate Haydn and his stepdad Ron we kept giving knowing looks to each other: Here we go again.
After all, we had been here so many times before. Last year and a 1-0 home defeat to wobbling Walsall springs to mind, just after we seemed to be ironing out some of our problems.
When the Tranmere goal went in just before half-time I swear you could hear the collective sigh on the M32 sliproad.
Perhaps, some would argue, we expect too much of ourselves?
Certainly, there are those fans who think we are a mid-table League One team and are punching our weight. We should be happy to sit there with a record of won 3, drawn 3, lost 3.
We should be wallowing in our mediocrity.
I'm sorry, but I don't share that view.
There was enough evidence on Tuesday that in new boys Will Hoskins, Gary Sawyer and Wayne Brown (briefly) we have players capable of matching some of the best in the division.
What we didn't seem to have was a leader on the pitch, able to rally the troops after our early domination faded.
Or some good, straight forward nous.
Tranmere were there to fight for the points. They may be managed by a promoted physio, but they were well organised and ready to battle for every ball.
In contrast, for long periods the Gas didn't seem to have any constructive plan.
Perhaps the thing that annoyed me most was that at times we seemed outnumbered in midfield, and this should be where a manager earns his corn.
For all the scribbling on bits of paper that our boss Paul Trollope did during the first half, at no stage did he try to change our approach.
The one substitution he made - Brown for captain Stuart Campbell - was a like-for-like change in the middle of the park. There was no attempt to even-up the battle in midfield, to withdraw one of our three-pronged attack in favour of an additional body in the engine room. I would like to know why, but I don't think the answer will be forthcoming.
So on we go - to high-flyers Huddersfield tomorrow and then our near neighbours Swindon on Monday week. Two very tough fixtures.
I guess the one hope I will cling to is that we are consistent in our inconsistency.
We don't have a clue how we are going to perform, so why should the opposition?
It's a very thin straw to clutch at, but I will be clinging to it for grim death when we travel to Yorkshire tomorrow.