By John Taylor

After the non-too-serious business of pre-season friendlies and the extremely serious business of new signings, the real season got underway at Chester on the Second Saturday of the month. We started with 5 new signings making debuts: Robertson, Fletcher, Lester, Leven and Winter. It was a while since we'd had that many debutants in a match. Doubtless keyed-up by the first trip to Chester for a proper game in ages, coupled with the new season and new signings, the away contingent was over a thousand which was encouraging stuff.

The game itself was an entertaining affair with plenty of goalmouth action at both ends, though both teams' finishing left much to be desired. Jamie Ward was particularly guilty on our part with three misses when you would have expected him to score. Significantly, all three were on his weaker left side. City did have the ball in the net from a header after the break, but the effort was mysteriously chalked off. Rumour had it that the linesman spotted a push - very good of him I reckon. We also had the ball in the net, but the flag had gone up early and so it was clearly never going to be a goal. Late on new boy Winter looked like he was going to score but fell over when approached by a defender with our half-hearted penalty appeals rightly ignored. Target man Fletcher had a decent chance with a late header, but he floated it over both the keeper and the bar. So the game ended goalless which was reasonable enough as we could well have won it but could also easily have lost. Last season we certainly would have.

Next up was the Carling Cup and the short trip up the road to Bramall Lane where Wayne Allison was included against his former club with Steve Fletcher dropping out. As usual, the Chief received rapturous applause from the fans of his former club showing the high regard in which he is held wherever he's played. The Bramall Lane atmosphere was a trifle strange as United had decided not to open the Shoreham Street end, so Town were kicking towards a vast empty stand in the first half.

Despite looking the better outfit early on we went behind on 14 minutes when Stead converted after a Roche parry. 3 minutes later, we were level as Ward crossed for Lester to head in against his former team and he picked up a boot in the face for his troubles. Town went after our former Premiership hosts with a vengeance and looked very threatening, but shortly after the half hour, Ward pulled up after beating Geary with what was obviously a recurrence of his hamstring problem. Adam Smith replaced the unfortunate Ward who would now miss out on an international appearance with the Northern Ireland U21 team.

After a succession of Town attacks and corners, we were undone right at the end of the half as United's attacking quality told with a swift break resulting in Stead sweeping the ball past Roche for an underserved Blades half time lead.

United clearly had a stiff talking-to at the break as they re-emerged with far greater purpose in the second period. They further extended their lead on 55 minutes after we failed to clear a corner properly and United exploited gaps on our left. At this point it began to look like we could get a mauling, but Roche pulled off several fine saves and we defended doggedly to keep United at bay. As the game wore on we came back at our hosts and tested Kenny on occasions, but without further success. The 3-1 defeat in the end was about right, strangely equalling our only other League Cup match at the Lane in the mid-70's.

Sheffield United's Nicky Travis injured in training and yet to feature

The first home game of the season saw Stockport in town and we had Adam Smith starting in place of the injured Ward whilst Fletcher returned in place of Allison. New loan signing from Sheffield United, Nicky Travis got injured in training, so he missed out on a debut. The first half was fairly even, though Lester had an effort chalked off on a tight offside decision and both keepers made decent saves. County upped their game somewhat after the restart and, in a bid to pep up our attack, Smith was replaced by Jackson after only 10 minutes of the resumption. He looked lively and caused the County back line some difficulties, though the final ball was never quite what was required. The visitors also did the sub bit, bringing on Dickinson for Griffin just after the hour. The move brought a fairly swift reward as the sub nutted in at the near post from a right wing cross. In the process, he and Downes clashed heads resulting in the Aussie going off and being replaced by Gray. Allison then replaced Fletcher and soon afterwards we got the deserved equaliser when Lester scored from close range after head tennis following a corner.  We then threw everything at the County goal, but Logan and the woodwork were equal to anything we could muster. Leven's intervention snuffed out a by now rare Hatters' raid and the game ended all-square. It was slightly disappointing, though there were signs of something positive, especially when we went behind and then woke up to play some good stuff late on. Again, we would have lost that game last season.

The final game of the month was the trip to London Road, one of our favourite away venues. Darren Ferguson's team are one of the bookies' tips for the title, so the game was expected to be a tough test for Mr Richardson's charges. The only team change saw Jamie Lowry in for his first start of the season at the expense of Adam Smith (the only Town player ever to appear on British banknotes). After only 7 minutes, Lester appeared to have given us the lead, but he was harshly adjudged to have bundled over Westwood. Within seconds we were behind as Posh got the ball quickly forward for McLean to outjump Picken and score with a neat header.

Just before the quarter hour, Fletcher appeared to have equalised, but his header was disallowed for a push on the fortunate Westwood. The former Walsall defender soon found his luck deserting him as he bundled Lester over in the box to concede a penalty. He also got booked for his trouble, though Lester ruined things by failing to convert the spot-kick as the Iraqi keeper Jalal made a fine save. Within a minute the ace poacher had equalised, however, with a trademark 6-yard box tap-in after good work on the left by Leven. This was our first goal on the road in the league since Paul Hall's effort at Millwall back in February - 9 games without a goal - what a miserable run. We were almost in the lead just after the half hour when Downes clattered the bar from a left wing corner. Then, for the second away game on the trot, we went to sleep just before the break and conceded, this time to Charlie Lee, very much against the run of play.

The early exchanges of the second half saw Barry Roche at his most alert, thwarting the home team on 3 occasions. On 58 minutes we equalised, when Lester fashioned an opportunity just inside the box and side-footed towards the corner. Jalal couldn't hold his shot and Jamie Lowry nipped in to net his first ever goal - remarkable striking instincts being exhibited for a defender. Within 90 seconds we were ahead as Lester caused more mayhem in the Posh box and fed Robertson on the left. His excellent cross found Niven who headed in for a magnificent goal. After this we appeared to concede midfield and the home side pinned us back in our box. Fine defending and solid keeping, however, kept our goal intact and we ran out worthy winners to great jubilation on the away terraces. This was a brilliant end to the month after no away wins since Rotherham back in January.

Off the field in the month we let Paul Shaw go after a disappointing time at Saltergate and he turned up subsequently at Oxford. Aaron Downes and Jamie Ward got international call-ups, though both got injured so withdrew in amazing Premiership style. Gregor Robertson got in the league 2 team for his performance at Peterborough, though his defensive work seemed less impressive than his midfield support play. Nothing much seems to be happening on the ground front, though Alan Stevenson has left to join Shrewsbury Town on a full-time basis.

Man-of-the month for August is a tough one with some good defensive displays from Kovacs and Downes, whilst Lester has looked very sharp up-front. Derek Niven has been all-energy in the middle though his fellow-midfielders have struggled to find consistency as newcomers to the team. My pick this time, though, goes to Barry Roche who has been consistently good in each game. He appears to be more confident than in his previous 2 seasons and has commanded his area well and made some cracking saves. Let's hope he has a lot less to do for the rest of the season.