If New York is the city that never sleeps, then football is the sport that never stops.

While the final whistle was blown on the 2016/17 season in weekend leagues up and down the county many weeks ago, cries of “megs” and “top bins” can still be heard at many of the five and six-a-side midweek evening league games that are now proving so popular around Gloucestershire.

One such league is hosted by All Saints Academy in Cheltenham. Organised by Powerplay, six-a-side games are played every Thursday evening across three 3G pitches. There are six divisions of six teams and matches are played over 50 weeks of the year.

Each team plays each other twice and after a round of 10 matches, two teams are promoted and two are relegated.

It means, in theory, a team could be promoted five times in a year which is something that not even Vinnie Jones and John Fashanu could claim in Wimbledon’s heyday in the 1970s and 1980s!

While the players of Naunton FC – formed just over two years ago by a group of friends who attended Balcarras School – would never compare themselves to Jones and Fashanu, they have nevertheless enjoyed considerable success over the past couple of years.

They now play in the top division and team founder Shaun Overthrow said: “I think we’ve won two titles and two promotions. It started off as a bit of a social thing, play a game of football and have a few beers.

“We left school at 18 and a few of us stopped playing football. We wanted to play with our mates so we joined this league. To be honest I thought it would only last for about six months but it’s been great.

“We started to realise that we’re actually quite good and now we’re quite competitive.”

Twenty-three-year-old Overthrow is a decent footballer. He plays for FC Lakeside in their Cheltenham League Division Three side and has also played for the club in Division Two of the Northern Senior League.

The travelling puts him off playing regularly in the Northern Senior League and playing in the six-a-side league certainly ticks a lot of boxes for him.

“Particularly in the middle of the winter,” he said. “The pitches are great and the floodlights are good too. And it’s great just playing with your mates.”

The league at All Saints is run by Gareth Williams on behalf of Powerplay.

“I’ve been running it for the past 15 years,” he said. “It used to be held at St Benedict’s School and then Christ College before moving to All Saints.”

Williams has run midweek leagues in Exeter, Stroud and Evesham in the past and the Thursday league at All Saints is just one of several venues in the immediate area used by Powerplay.

Others include Bishop’s Cleeve Football Club, Leisure at Cheltenham, Brockworth School and Winchcombe School.