Every game is important at this stage of the season and three more big matches come our way on Saturday as the season enters April.

The First team will still feel that they need a few more points before they can definitely stop looking over their shoulders, even though a win, rather than a defeat, against Lydbrook Athletic a fortnight ago would have taken them into the top half of the table for the first time since the side returned to the Northern Senior League’s top flight two years ago.   This weekend’s visitors are Gala Wilton, who preceded the Firsts as champions of the Cheltenham League, winning their place back in the GNSL in 2005, a year before we took the same step, and who were elevated to Division One a year after the Firsts, who gained promotion at the first attempt whilst Gala Wilton spent three seasons in Division Two.  The first game between the two sides this season, which was played just before Christmas, saw the first team take the lead thanks to a Simon Delaney goal but then succumb to two goals in as many minutes just before the break which left the home team 2-1 winners.  Since then, notwithstanding the stunning 7-1 success Gala Wilton enjoyed over Cheltenham Civil Service the day after Boxing Day, our visitors this weekend have found points rather difficult to come by.  In the 10 League games played since the turn of the year, Gala have only picked up 4 points, which have come from an impressive looking 2-1 win at Shortwood United and a 1-1 draw against the same Lydbrook team that walked away from Cheltenham Road with all three points a fortnight ago.  So, top form might have deserted Gala recently but all the signs still suggest that the game this weekend will be every bit as close as the away match at Fairmile Gardens back in December.

The Reserves travel to Brockworth Albion, who are currently 11^th in the table and who will, probably, also still feel that they are in need of a few more points before they can feel that their status is assured for next season.  This will be the first League game between the two sides this season, although they did meet in the GFA Junior Cup, when it took a goal from Jamie Roberts deep into extra time to separate the two sides.  Brockworth’s current form is very up and down, with their season being presented in microcosm by their exploits in March.  They started the month with an impressive 3-1 win at home to AC Olympia and followed this up with a more-than-acceptable draw, 2-2 away to Cheltenham Civil Service, but they then lost both of the next two games, 4-0 at home to Bredon and, last weekend, 3-0 at Northway – a side that had lost 10-0 to Whaddon the week before and which Brockworth managed to beat, 2-1, at home just before Christmas.  That win, along with the victory over AC Olympia, represent Brockworth’s only home successes to date this season, a record that includes not only a 3-1 defeat at the hands of Cheltenham Saracens, the division’s bottom team, but, also, a 1-1 draw with 3^rd placed Apperley & Tewkesbury Dynamos.  Indeed, the suspicion that the eventual outcome of the match really does depend on the Brockworth team that turns up on the day is further heightened by the realisation that, prior to that 3-1 win over AC Olympia, our fellow Cheltenham Road tenants had won both of their two previous meetings with Brockworth this season, 5-1 at home in the League and 5-0 away in the Charity Cup.  It is also worth noting that the 5-0 Charity Cup win was just one week before it took the Reserves 120 minutes to overcome the same opposition by a single goal!!

For the Third team, the equation is now quite simple:  if they win all of their remaining 4 games, they will finish second and will be promoted automatically;  if they don’t, they leave themselves open to the vagaries of elements of fate that they cannot control, these being, specifically, either the results of other sides, goal difference (or even, maybe, goals scored) or the prospect of League re-organisation.  What they are already certain of, following last Saturday’s 5-1 win away to Belmore United Reserves, who are also this weekend’s opponents at Cheltenham Road, is that, barring a miracle of mathematically gargantuan proportions, the Third team will finish in the top three.  Outside of this select band at the summit of the Division Five table, only Cleevonians can equal the points total that the thirds have already gained and Cleevonians, who only have two games left to play to make up the 6 point gap, have a goal difference that is inferior to that of the thirds by 18 goals.  However, as we all know, third place wasn’t good enough to go up last season and, in order to avoid the possibility of going through all that heartache all over again, the side is desperate to secure the runners-up spot this time round.  By all accounts, the chances of doing this will rest on the production of a significantly improved level of performance compared to last week, when the 5-1 score line glossed over a display that, following the excellent win over C & G the week before, left a lot to be desired.  Naturally enough, the main object of the exercise was to secure the three points and this was achieved but the manner of the victory was nowhere near as satisfactory as the 3-1 success, over the League Leaders, had been 7 days earlier.  The game on Saturday is the third team’s final appearance at Bishop’s Cleeve Playing Fields this season and they will be striving not only to maintain their push for promotion, but also to preserve their unbeaten home league record.  Meanwhile, their only rivals for the Division Five runners-up spot, Falcons Reserves, are at home to Apperley& Tewkesbury Dynamos III.