Tewkesbury Town have set out their plans as they look to gain promotion to the Gloucestershire Northern Senior League at the end of this season.
Tewkesbury currently play in Division One North of the Cheltenham Association League but have begun their application for the next tier.
However, the club are currently a year behind schedule as they were due to be promoted at the end of the last campaign before the curtailing of the season due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
Tewkesbury were top of the league at the beginning of March when the leagues were abandoned and club secretary Marc Lane is certain that his side would’ve seen the job through.
He said: “For our first team we were top of the league and we probably would have won the league based on our form and probably would have been promoted in to the Northern Senior Leagues.
“It scuppered us from getting promotion and winning the league for the first time in its current form, so for the first time in at least 20/30 years.”
Nevertheless, out of the disappointment of last season a renewed optimism surrounds the club at the start of the new campaign.
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The break in sport over the summer allowed club officials such as Lane to do the necessary work off the pitch to allow for a smooth transition in to the Northern Senior League next season.
He said: “For our first team our aim is to finish top two and apply for promotion to the Northern Senior League for next season.
“I’ve managed to get some grants in preseason to get a lot of work done on the pitch, so we’ve had nearly £4,000 towards new goals, getting the groundwork done and we’ve taken that opportunity to extend the pitch.”
Lane continued: “The pitch wouldn’t have been big enough for the Northern Senior League this season so we had to get it extended by 10 yards for the higher standard because there is different requirements.
“In July I had the guy from the Northern Senior League check and do an inspection on our facilities as part of our application and other than the pitch all the facilities we have are up to standard.”
Tewkesbury have been handed a further boost in their search for promotion in the form of the new league structure that has taken over this season.
Previously a lineal four divisions, the new structure has split the top tier into a north and south league. This has divided the old top division in half in a move that Lane believes will benefit his side.
He said: “From our point of view it [new league structure] works out quite well because they’ve merged parts of divsion one and two which means the league we are in now only contains half the teams we were up against last year and half from the league below.
“Because we were top of division one last season and we now have 2/3 teams that were near the bottom of division two from a competitive point of view it should be easier for our first team.
“We could be facing teams that were essentially two divisions below us last season which for us is a positive but I can imagine for some teams it is slightly unfair.”
Tewkesbury still have work to do on the pitch should they wish to fulfil their ambition of promotion out of the division.
A top two finish is needed for Tewkesbury to be eligible for promotion and with the club currently sitting in fourth place there is still a lot of work to do.
