Very unusually, all three of the club’s sides are away this weekend and all three will be hoping to return home with a victory and the best possible start to the new year, tucked away in the kit bag

The Reserves and the third team are both engaged in GFA County Cup competitions, all of which have now reached the Quarter Final stages. Both seem to have received tough draws and both, in keeping with most of the sides from the Cheltenham League who are still left in County FA competitions at this stage, have been drawn away from home.

Firstly, the Reserves are required to travel to the home of the long time Leaders of Division Two of the Stroud League, Randwick, to decide who will make it into the Semi Finals of the Junior Cup. Now, throughout the 1990’s, the club had a fourth team which was entered in the Stroud League and it was a standing joke that teams from that area were not permitted to enter the League unless they played their home games on a pitch with a gradient that was at least 1:4. This, obviously, was a sweeping generalisation and, although very few pitches in the Stroud League were flat – North Nibley sloped from end to end, was covered in divots and had a tree growing over one goal, Woodchester undulated all over the place and had touchlines on one side that were 8 feet lower than the "top" side, for example – very few were really that bad. Apart from Randwick. Cleeve Hill is flatter than Randwick’s pitch. If the goalkeeper at one end is standing on his goal line, his feet are about a yard further above sea level than the cross bar at the other end. At this time of year, skiers have to be cleared off the pitch before the game can start. Still, none of this should concern the Reserves, as it means that the pitch is ideally suited to a team that has pace to burn and which can make intelligent use of both flanks. Randwick have recently been replaced at the top of Division Two of the Stroud League, on goal difference, by Kingswood Reserves and they suffered their only defeat of the season at home, remarkably by 6-1 against fifth placed Hardwicke Reserves, but their last game was a 3-1 away victory at Whiteshill. The Reserves travel to the Five Vallies with Sam Bastow retaining his place in goal and Dan Wood taking advantage of his non-cup tied status to strengthen the squad

The third team, meanwhile, are away to the long time leaders of Stroud League Division Seven, Tredworth Tigers and the team will be desperate to make up for the disappointment of going out of the Minor Charity Cup to Apperley & Tewkesbury Dynamos on penalties just before Christmas. Tredworth Tigers, just like Randwick, are currently in second place but they have three games in hand, over leaders Stroud Imperial, in which to make up the 3 point gap between the two sides and it seems likely that they will achieve this with ease as they have the Division’s only 100% record. In fact, they have scored 53 goals in their 8 League games to date but, if anything, their away form so far has outstripped their home record. In the four games that they have played away from Bishops College, they have scored 34 times, including a 13-1 win over Randwick 3rds – on their pitch – and an 8-2 win in the local derby against Trident Reserves. The score lines in their home victories have been somewhat more restrained, with their only score of greater than five being the match against the current leaders that they won by the odd goal in eleven!!! To match this, in the Primary Cup this season, they have scored 6, 11 and 5 in the three rounds that they have played to reach the Quarter Final stage but this Saturday’s match will be the first time this season that they have played a cup tie on their home ground. The third team squad includes Liam Frost, who is now back from spending the whole Autumn (or should that be Spring) in the antipodes and also welcome back Martin Reid and Adam Slade.

Thoughts of Cup glory will not distract the first team this weekend, however, as they travel to Wotton Rovers hunting for League points from a victory that will augment what was, probably, their best home display of the season when they beat Broadwell Amateurs 2-1 a fortnight ago. The desire, tenacity and will to win displayed by the side on the last Saturday before Christmas was a credit to everyone involved with the team and ensured that they thoroughly deserved to take three points from the match. The win was only the team’s third success at home all season, the first of which was an impressive 4-2 victory over Wotton Rovers on the opening day of the season back in August. At least, it was very impressive in the first half, as the team raced to a 4 goal advantage before the break that the visitors halved in the second half. Even so, it was an excellent manner in which to get the season underway and, unfortunately for Wotton, things have scarcely improved since. The Rovers were relegated from the County League at the end of last season and, on current form, seem destined to make it two relegations in a row as they currently languish at the bottom of Division One of the Northern Senior League with just 4 points from their opening thirteen matches. Their single success so far came on their travels, a 1-0 win at Brockworth back in October, just a week after they picked up their only other point of the season with a 3-3 home draw against Tetbury. Their other most noteworthy result was narrow 3-4 defeat against league leaders Longlevens in September but, since then, results have been very disappointing, with an 8-1 defeat at Brimscombe & Thrupp providing the low point so far. The squad for this game is very similar to the one that gained that excellent win against Broadwell just before Christmas, with Jon Marchant retained in the squad and Neil Bermingham returning after a sojourn in the third team.