The Minor Charity Cup is only open to teams who compete in Cheltenham League Division Five but, if you are unfortunate enough to be drawn in the first round, this still requires you to win 4 games if you want to get your hands on the trophy. So far this year, then, the thirds have seen off Sherborne Harriers and Tewkesbury Town Reserves, both at home and both , in their own ways, very noteworthy scalps. It was the second year running that the side had been drawn against Sherborne Harriers and, last time out, a 4-3 win for Harriers was but one small step on the road to winning their first ever trophy as a senior club. So, the 2-0 home win for the thirds in early December knocked out the holders, then, and a further 2-0 home success over Tewkesbury Town Reserves at the beginning of February meant that the side had not only booked themselves a semi final place, but that they had also seen off a side that will, next month, contest the GFA Primary Cup Final.

So what was the prevailing mood in the Cottage up the back end of Cheltenham Boy’s College as match day loomed ever closer? Alfers, again, shed some light on the matter! "There are several factors that I am NOT going to allow to have an adverse effect on my, some would say unrealistically, optimistic tendencies.," he began - and everyone else in the room at the time started to wonder whether there was anything on the telly worth vegging out in front of

"Firstly," he continued, undeterred "why should I allow myself to become downcast over the fact that 3 of our best players will be unable to take part in the Semi Final due to injury (or injury and illness in Darky’s case)?" Why indeed!! When you still have the likes of Kieran Bermingham, who has been frightening Division Five defences, from Cleevonians to Northleach Town , senseless over the last few months and a born-again goal machine in the shape of the Manager himself, surely there is no reason to be downcast. And there is always Clarkey, too – hat-trick hero last weekend!! Admittedly, against a team that only had 9 players, but who else scored three times? Even so, Alfers still needed more self-persuasion.

"Secondly, the fact that the Semi Final is to be, most equitably, played at the ‘neutral’ venue that is, in fact, our opponents home ground has not influenced my mood in the slightest," he exclaimed, self belief now oozing from every pore. It is frightening the effect that 4 goals in the same season can have on an erstwhile left back in the twilight years of his career.

But he wasn’t finished. Summoning up the motivational nous that has spurred the third team on its way to one of its most successful periods since 1989, he sought to encapsulate the Reserve team’s contribution to the third team’s cup run

"Thirdly," he enumerated, thus illustrating, beyond question, the benefits that he derived from the best education that Winchcombe Secondary School could provide at the time, "I’m not going to consider feeling even slightly pessimistic over the fact that several more of our best players won’t be eligible for selection because they have represented the Reserve team in their own Cup "Run" this season."

Now, at this point he was referring to the Reserves’ progress to the Quarter Finals of the Senior Charity Cup, where they then came unstuck against FC Barometrics, a team that will enter the final as favourites, having previously overcome High Tech Rangers and, most creditably, Tewkesbury Dynamos away. A decent enough season, then, in a competition that ends up with a final at Whaddon Road but not good enough to render it immune from Alfer’s consideration

"There is no way", he told himself as much as anyone else, "that I will become depressed at the realization that many good players, who could have represented us in the forthcoming Semi Final, were used in the final minutes of 2nd team Cup games, one of which was well and truly lost long before the end of the game. "

By this point, his face had turned scarlet, veins were bulging out of both his forehead and neck and he was seriously threatening the continued existence of a nest of tables with the emotionally charged fist beating to which he was subjecting it. The decibels raised again as he declared "This situation is clearly not the fault of the 2nd team Manager who did what he had to do and whose decision making sees the 2nd team sitting at the top of their league. I certainly don’t blame Cotts for this situation!" With this he paused and contemplated the match to come: The constitution of his squad which, shorn as it may be of the likes of Moss, Reid, Marchant, Mole Junior and Pucello, could still call upon Bermingham, Carpenter, Hurring, Crichton and Withers, as well as Neil Howchin and Martin Chandler; the fact that it was last September that anyone had last beaten them; and the fact that, even though it had been tough, the side available to him this Wednesday had, pretty much, carried the team to within touching distance of promotion. With this, the maelstrom subsided, he smiled and conceded

"And nobody else should either."

GOOD LUCK TO THE THIRDS ON WEDNESDAY – PLEASE GET TO THE GAME TO SUPPORT THEM IF YOU CAN!!!!!!!!!!