So, after all the heady excitement of Cup Football over the course of the last few weeks, with both the Reserves and the Third team booking themselves places in the next round of their respective GFA Competitions on December 6^th, its back to League action for all three sides this weekend. Of course, following their early exits from both cups, the first team have never really left the League behind but, for the other two teams, a full time return to the pursuit for points demands that cup form must now be translated to performance in the Cheltenham League.

The First team are at home this weekend, to Dursley Town, who finished as runners-up in Division Two of the NSL last season and who have made an excellent start to life at the higher level. In fact, the club has won 5 of its first 6 League games this season, with its first reverse not being suffered until early October, when the side fell to a 3-1 away defeat at the hands of Lydbrook Rovers. Two seasons ago, the first team took 4 points from Dursley on their way to their own promotion and it was the away game that season which really stuck out in the memory as the firsts battled back from 3-0 down to eventually claim a share of the points with a 3-3 draw. This weekend, Matt Hall is called up to make his first start for the team this season but, otherwise, the firsts will be expecting to field much the same team that has taken 7 points from the last 9

Meanwhile, the Reserves are also at home and entertain Dowty Dynamos, a team that is soon to join the ranks of near neighbours, which is what they will be once they move their home ground from Dowty Rotol to The Newlands. In fact, as they are due to play their first game at their new home on November 15^th, they will, by now, have played their last game at their old venue, although whether or not they will also be wearing their new colours – black and pink stripes, by all accounts – remains to be seen. It is something of a sign of the times that, bizarrely, the local football scene now "boasts" the somewhat perverse scenario in which Dowty Dynamos will be playing home games at the "Smiths Club" whilst Smiths Athletic play at Dowty Rotol but it is probable that stranger things still happen at sea. Dowty Dynamos have, so far, endured a strange season, with excellent results, such as the triumph over Division One title chasers, Moreton Rangers, in the Charity Cup, sitting uneasily with a League position that sees them just one place above the relegation zone, with just 6 points from 6 games. This Saturday, they will be facing a Star FC Reserve side that will be giving debuts to two new signings, brothers Shaun and Steve Piper and which will be hoping to include Ben Norman once again following injury.

Quirkily, as a team that has now forsaken its home at Dowty Rotol makes its way to play the Reserves at Cheltenham Road, so the third team head off to Dowty Rotol to meet one of the teams that still remain in residence there. FC Electrics Reserves will be the hosts for this weekend’s Division 5 match, a team from whom the thirds managed to acquire 4 points last season. Indeed, if the corresponding fixture earlier this year had finished a couple of minutes earlier, so that the penalty that was conceded and, then, converted with virtually the last kick of the match to make the score 1-1, had not happened, then the thirds might well have been in Division Four by now. Still, it is best not to dwell on such things, especially as the team has now drawn each of its last four matches in the League – including last weekend’s stalemate with second-bottom Apperley and Tewkesbury Dynamos III, coincidentally on a weekend when their Division Three side didn’t have a match. FC Electrics Reserves, meanwhile, have scored freely in their six games so far – 17 in total – but have managed to lose as many games as they have won, without any ending all-square! The third team this week will be bolstered by the inclusion of Rob Vaughan and Mark Cottell and will also be including Adam Slade for the first time.