Steve Cleal is living the dream. The Bishop’s Cleeve-born and bred man who still lives in the village is managing the football club he loves – and he’s doing a very good job of it.

Cleal has been in charge at Bishop’s Cleeve for almost three years and has steered them into mid-table of the Evo-Stik Southern League Division One South and West.

That is no mean feat when you consider the club’s on-the-pitch struggles before he arrived and even in Cleal’s first season in charge it was often a case of wondering where the next point, let alone win, was coming from.

Last season saw a big improvement as Cleal lifted the club to 12th place and 55 points and that level of consistency has been maintained for much of this campaign.

Cleal is one of life’s infectious characters and when he says he’s “loving it” as Cleeve manager, you know he really is.

“This club means so much to me,” the 38-year-old said. “I played here for 12 years and I live in the village. I’m at the club every day and for someone like me to be involved in the club it’s like Christmas Day every day! It’s part of my make-up.

“I loved playing here and it was always the dream to be manager here. I got the chance a bit earlier than I expected but to turn the club’s fortunes round as we have done is something special.”

Cleal, dad to Aaliyah, 16, Haydn, five, and Brianne, two, has agreed to stay with the club for another two seasons and the planning has already started for the next campaign.

“I don’t sign a contract but we just have a gentlemen’s agreement,” explained Cleal, who wants to keep as many of the existing squad as possible for the 2017/18 season.

“They are all non-contract players so it can be difficult. Players will travel around but if we can keep the nucleus of the squad we’ve got now and add four or five then we can break into the top 10 which has to be the aim.”

Cleal, a central midfielder back in the day, is the first to admit that he is still learning about the art of football management.

He was delighted to complete the double over Winchester Town this season – something he described as a “massive achievement” – and has enjoyed locking horns with runaway leaders Hereford.

Those games both ended in 4-0 defeats but Cleal has nothing but praise for Hereford boss Pete Beadle. “He’s a diamond,” he said. “I get on very well with him. I speak to him quite a lot and he’s full of admiration for what we’ve achieved at Cleeve and that’s nice to hear.”

A number of Cleeve’s first-team squad have been brought in from Worcester and the surrounding area and looking to the future Cleal wants to bring through more players from the club’s thriving Colts set-up.

“That’s the aim,” he said. “I came through that system and made my first-team debut at 16. There are a lot of good players in the Colts teams and we need to create the opportunity for them to come through to the senior side. It’s something we’re working on and we’re making progress.”

With all the time spent at the football club it’s a wonder Cleal has time for work or a personal life.

He laughs when asked if his wife Mairwen is a football widow but adds that if they don’t see each other at home then they’ve at least got a chance of bumping into each other at work.

That’s because they both work at UCAS in Cheltenham where Steve is an accounts manager and Mairwen, a qualified lawyer, works in the legal department.

“Mind you,” jokes Steve, “I only see her at work if I’ve I done something I’m not supposed to!”