The performances of Anthony Ireland and Tom Stayt against Leicestershire on Wednesday emphasised what a stronger bowling unit we have this season.

Bowling sides out twice was a big problem for us last year, but I'm confident Gloucestershire CCC now have an attack in place which will enable us to challenge for promotion in four-day cricket.

I've already said this season how impressed I've been by the bowling of Ian Saxelby and Vikram Banerjee, and Anthony and Tom took the opportunity to show what they can do when we bowled Leicestershire out for 133.

Anthony bowled brilliantly and finished with six wickets. He took advantage of the conditions after lunch, which was something we hadn't done as well as we would have liked in the first session.

It was a nice day for bowling and he was bowling down-wind. We asked for the ball to be changed, because it had gone out of shape, and the replacement one started to swing.

Anthony put the ball where he wanted and got his rewards. He's a little different to the other pace bowlers we've got in that he swings it into the bat and late.

He's quite a handful when he gets it right, as he showed at times last season. He has a fantastic strike-rate, but his economy has not been the best.

He's worked hard to improve that and it was great to see him and Tom bowl so well, because when young guys put in performances like that it takes a bit of pressure off me and Kirbs (Steve Kirby).

Tom bowled into the wind on Wednesday, which is a tough job. But he concentrated on bowling line and length and he made the batsmen play more.

Tom also bowled nicely in our win over Yorkshire in the Friends Provident Trophy game at Headingley last Sunday, even if his figures (2-51 in eight overs) didn't really show that.

It's always difficult for a young bowler to come into the one-day side, because the batsmen are going to come at you and try and put you under pressure. But I thought he bowled with good control and did well.

We went into the Leicestershire game without Saxelby and James Franklin, who both suffered injuries at Northampton last week, while Vikram Banerjee could count himself unfortunate to miss out. He's bowled very well this season, but Bristol has been seamer-friendly and this was a horses-for-courses selection.

I reckon the low scores so far at Bristol this season have been as much to do with the relaid outfield as anything else.

Admittedly, the pitch for the game with Essex was a bit damper than we would have liked, but the one we are using for the Leicestershire game is a typical Bristol wicket.

The ball is not running over the outfield as quickly since it has been relaid. Batsmen are finding it hard to score runs and that has led to a bit more frustration and some looser shots.

They put more sand on it for the Leicestershire game, to try and hold it together better, but at the moment it is still pretty slow and that's great for us bowlers!

There's also been a suggestion that the Tiflex balls we are using in four-day cricket this season swing more than the Dukes we used before.

Personally, I don't think there's any difference in that respect. The only thing I've found is that they get a bit softer, after about 35 to 40 overs, than the Dukes.

The great thing for us at the moment is that the guys are really enjoying their four-day cricket and we are bowling sides out.

No-one has scored more than 177 in the first innings against us yet and getting that win at Northampton last week has been great for our confidence.

We showed a lot of mental character to win that game after a few of the guys went down with injuries. We were basically down to three bowlers in each innings, so to go on and win the game was huge for us.

It had been 20 months since we last won a four-day game, so it was a relief to get that monkey off our back.

It was a bit tense for a while, but 370 was a lot of runs for them to chase and you usually end up winning when you have that sort of target to defend.

Andrew Hall played very well for them, but Alex (Gidman) got him out just before lunch and we felt pretty confident after that.

Hopefully, we can go on and get another win against Leicestershire, because that would put us in a great position before we have a month's break from four-day matches.

Next week is all about the Friends Provident Trophy and we've got ourselves into a good position to qualify for the quarter-finals.

If we can win our next two matches, at home to Durham on Sunday and at home to Yorkshire on Monday, we should be pretty much there in terms of getting through.

We are strong at home, but Yorkshire and Durham are two very good sides and we will need to be on top of our game.

INTERVIEW: Mark Easterbrook