IF you hadn’t looked too closely, you would think Darlo had just picked up where they left off last season. Whilst most expected a substantial step-up in quality of opposition, it hasn’t happened yet – or maybe Darlo are just a better team than they were last season.

Four games in and whilst I still don’t think we’re hitting the high notes just yet, one thing that can’t be denied is we’ve hit the ground running. Whilst some Darlo fans will be hoping for a solid first year in the National League North with consolidation and a return to the town, try telling that to Martin Gray and his players.

A trip to Gloucestershire on a Sunday had banana skin written all over it. Playing on an unfamiliar day had the potential of throwing the equilibrium but once we got going after a pretty sloppy first fifteen minutes, there really wasn’t going to be any stopping us.

The own goal by Terry Galbraith looked like it could derail us. Watching it trickle over the line with Peter Jameson helplessly wrong-footed seemed to sum up the potential for a first defeat of the season. However, the next thirty minutes answered a lot of questions for anyone who doubted our ability to challenge in this new league.

Whilst we comfortably got ahead of our hosts by half time, it could have been by more than by the solitary goal. As is always the case, the quality of balls being put in to the box in open play and especially from corners and throw-ins meant we always carried a threat. A big part of that threat is our new big man, Mark Beck.

When you consider it took both Nathan Cartman and Liam Hardy a few months and a full pre-season to get in to the Martin Gray way of playing for Darlo, Beck has made his mark immediately. Without having had a pre-season with his new teammates, Beck has become an integral part of the team and appears to have formed a good partnership with Liam Hardy.

At full time, I have to admit I thought we had been poor in the second half but after further reflection and listening to the two managers have their say on events, it looks like we were purposely being more disciplined to maintain our lead. Gloucester had plenty of possession but did very little with it.

That was primarily down to resolute defending, especially from our centre half pairing of Gary Brown and Kevin Burgess. In a way, it was a shame that we hadn’t pressed on and looked for more goals in the second half as we looked to have more goals in us but securing the three points was the most important thing.

With three more points in the bag, we move on to our home game with Chorley on Wednesday night. Like us, the Lancashire side are unbeaten so far this season although they have only played one game away from home which was a draw at Kidderminster.

With an air of invincibility building around Darlo, I can’t really look beyond a win on Wednesday night. We may not be sweeping sides aside like past seasons but we’re doing more than enough to win these games. I expect a similar performance against Chorley and another three points towards our charge up the league.