Never mind the b*!!*&%s

I'VE just passed another milestone. I won't give away my age but I work out I've now been supporting Bristol Rovers for 45 years.
To mark the occasion I had a great surprise present from my brother.
He recently bumped into the legend that is Paul Cook, the former drummer of the Sex Pistols, and managed to get a personally signed autograph for me.
It said simply: "To Nick, Bollox, Paul Cook."
I was overwhelmed. After all, it's such a great word, Bollox. Forget the literal sense, I find it is an expletive you can use in virtually any circumstance: Particularly when associated with my beloved football team.
In fact, I believe it was the one word I uttered as I stared pretty vacantly at the TV as the score came in from Whaddon Road on Saturday. After a pause for it to sink in I then pronounced: "Well... bollox!" The expression combined perfectly the emotions of high exhiliration and barely disguisable shock that I, and I imagine Gasheads throughout the world, were feeling at the knowledge that we had pulled ourselves up to the lofty heights of 17th in League Two - having taken our recent unbeaten run to THREE games.
And while we were all getting a bit carried away with such an unexpected early bonus, our new manager was having none of it. He refused to take the credit, passing it on to the players for their professionalism and hard work.
He said he hadn't changed anything in particular and had taken a backseat to Shaun North, who has been our caretaker coach this last couple of weeks.
Pardon me, but Bollox.
Certainly the players are gaining in confidence but I think knowing that there is a highly experienced, no-nonsense manager now at the helm of the club might have had a little bearing on how things turned out.
He was on the training ground for two days before the game, for instance. Players were tweeting about how much they had enjoyed training. He had tickled the formation slightly, so that we had gone from a 5-4-1 to a 4-4-2, after first consulting the players on what they thought.
Of course, this is all "new manager syndrome". There have been plenty of false dawns in the past.
But at least Saturday's result and overall performance proved that the players we have at the club ARE good enough, and recent suggestions that few of them were better than Conference level are well off the mark.
Certainly the two new loan players at the heart of the defence - goalkeeper Michael Poke and centre half Aaron Downes - have played a big part. The thought of securing two clean sheets in three games would have been the stuff of fantasy a month ago.
But also the much-maligned Chris Zebroski is proving his worth at this level, and our hard pushed midfielder Craig Stanley is becoming some sort of Gas icon having been roundly abused in some quarters a little while ago.
Let's hope the transformation continues and the supporters can carry on getting behind the team and putting some of the recent negativity behind them - the support at Cheltenham was, by all accounts, phenomenal.
The next test coming up is Bradford City at home, on Saturday. Glad to say, being on a week's holiday from my job in London, I'll be able to see at first hand what effect our new manager has had having been preparing the team for this game all week.
A home win to go with our recent achievements would be, pardon the pun, the Dog's Bollox.