Steve Abbley could run for fun as a footballer and he has not stood still since hanging up his boots almost 20 years ago.

The former Cheltenham Town right winger, who spent four years with the club in the 1980s, has been chairman of Cirencester Town since 1996, transforming the club both on and off the pitch.

A new ground with much improved facilities, a higher level of football and a stronger community base are all boxes that have been successfully ticked and there is more to come with the club recently starting work on a new 4G pitch that will only increase their links with schools and clubs in the area.

A skilful footballer, who could run and cross a ball, he was similarly successful as a player, enjoying great times not only with Cheltenham but also with Wycombe Wanderers and Gloucester City.

Abbley, now 60, and as passionate about football today as he was when he first pulled on a pair of boots back in the 1960s, is one of the more intelligent men involved in the beautiful game.

As a young professional at Swindon Town trying to make his way in the sport he soon realised that he couldn’t rely on football alone if he wanted to get on in life.

So while other players may have spent their spare time kicking their heels in pubs and betting shops, Abbley was busy studying accountancy.

It was to stand him in good stead because today he owns and runs Quick Move Properties, a business in Wootton Bassett that buys, sells and renovates properties, although he still finds time to call into the football club every morning on his way to work.

Liverpool-born Abbley has spent much of his life living in and around the South West. He moved to Swindon when he was nine and it was there that his footballing adventure took off.

He told The Local Answer: “I was playing for South West Counties against the Royal Navy down in Portsmouth. We won 2-0 and I got both the goals.

“I was 19 and Frank Burrows, who was Swindon manager at the time, asked me if I’d like to be a professional. Who wouldn’t?

“I jumped at the chance and played a few reserve games but then Frank left to go to Portsmouth.

“Bobby Smith took over at Swindon and Wilf Tranter was his assistant. I was starting to think I was too old to start out as a professional but John Trollope told me to come and play a few more games for the reserves to see if the new management team liked me.

“They did and they gave me the opportunity to play professional football. I will always be grateful to them because they gave me the chance to do something I loved.”

In those days reserve games were played in the Football Combination and the young Abbley was soon coming up against some of the very best players in the land.

“Reserve team games were used to get players back to fitness or back into form so you never knew who you would be playing,” he said.

“I remember coming up against Liam Brady when we played Arsenal and facing Spurs and Glenn Hoddle. Spurs beat us 7-0 and Hoddle got a hat-trick.”

So who was the best player he played against?

“Tony Currie,” he said. “He was still an England player at the time and he gave me the runaround. I couldn’t get the ball off him. He was so big. He didn’t have that much pace but he had so much skill he didn’t need it.”

Abbley, who signed for Swindon in 1979, had to wait until March 1980 to make his first-team debut. He had been part of the first-team squad but in the days of only one substitute it was much harder than it is today to get onto the pitch.

The start of 1980 was a good time for Swindon as they reached the last four of the League Cup before going out to eventual winners Wolves.

“Alan Mayes and Andy Rowland got 60 goals between them that season,” remembers Abbley. “I was 13th man against Wolves. It meant I didn’t get changed and had to carry everyone else’s kit!”

Abbley went on to make five appearances for Swindon that season, three more in the following campaign and a further 15 in 1982/83 when Swindon were relegated to the old Division Four.

His first win in Swindon colours came against Gillingham in a match that saw future Manchester United centre-half Steve Bruce sent off for two yellow cards.

“He was a little less cultured in those days,” laughed Abbley. “In those days you had to commit the footballing equivalent of GBH to get sent off. The first bad tackle was always considered a free one.”

Not surprisingly as an offensive player, Abbley said the outlawing of the tackle from behind “was a long time coming” but he believes forwards have too much protection these days.

“The pendulum has swung too far now,” he said. “Any physical contact doesn’t have to be a foul although players make it very difficult for referees by throwing themselves about.”

At the end of 1982/83 season Abbley was released by Swindon but having qualified as an accountant he was ready to leave the full-time game when Cheltenham came calling.

“I really loved the non-league scene,” said Abbley. “They were great days at Cheltenham. We had a great set of lads and we also had some success as well winning promotion to the Conference.

“That year we won the Southern League, Brian Hughes scored 28 goals from the centre of midfield, Mark Boyland scored 32-33 goals and Steve Brooks also got a number of goals from midfield.

“We had some good players in that side. Neil Hards was a top goalkeeper, we had Kev Willetts and Ray Baverstock in the full-back positions, Keith Brown in midfield, Nick Jordan played on the opposite wing to me and up front Chris Townsend was a great finisher.”

Abbley is also full of praise for manager John Murphy. “He found the transition from player to manager tough but he had a good eye for a player and knew how to get a player to fit into his team,” he said.

“He was really good with the players and I always found him easy to talk to.”

Abbley’s time at Cheltenham was ended by a ruptured medial ligament and he was soon on his way to Wycombe Wanderers, then a non-league club, along with Boyland and Martin Blackler.

Abbley had been captain at Cheltenham and he was soon made club captain at Wycombe.

“I always seemed to be asked to do the job,” said Abbley, “although it was never a problem. I liked it. It’s not like being captain of a cricket team where you are having to make decisions all the time.”

Abbley was converted to a wing-back during his time at Wycombe and enjoyed his new role. “It was nice having the ball when you are facing the opposition rather than with your back to your opponent when you are playing on the wing.”

Abbley played 120 games for Wycombe but the arrival of Martin O’Neill as the new manager hastened his departure.

“We just didn’t get on,” said Abbley. “I found him very difficult to talk to. Maybe he didn’t like the fact that I was club captain and that the players came to me with their problems.

“I was also very busy with work and travelling quite a lot to the US and he didn’t like that.”

A parting of the ways was inevitable and after a spell with Trowbridge, Abbley linked up with Gloucester City who were to go head to head with his old club Cheltenham in the race for promotion to the Conference.

In the end it was Cheltenham, under new boss Steve Cotterill, who prevailed but Abbley loved his two seasons at Gloucester where Brian Godfrey was the manager.

“We just missed out on promotion from the Southern League two seasons in a row,” he remembers. “We had a great side. Baver was there, Graham Withey, who scored a lot of goals, John Freegard, Derek Dawkins, Wayne Noble and Steve Talboys, who went on to play for Wimbledon.

“We thought we’d been promoted when we beat Bromsgrove in the last game of the season but then Farnborough just pipped us.”

A spell at Trowbridge sandwiched his time at Gloucester and the start of his love affair with Cirencester Town.

So what attracted him to Cirencester, who were then languishing in the Hellenic League?

“It was a project,” he said. “Cirencester was manna from heaven for me because it mixed football, finance and property.

“The club owned their Tetbury Road ground – it had been gifted to them by the Earl of Bathurst – so once I established I could sell it for development I set about trying to find a big new site for the club.”

The Corinium Stadium, built on a 17.5-acre site in Kingshill, was opened in 2002 and Abbley, who lives in the town, is rightly proud of how far the club have come in the past two decades.

“We’ve put Cirencester on the Southern League football map,” he said. “We’ve been competing against the likes of Weymouth, Cambridge and Truro – they’re all cities and we’re a tiny little town of 17-18,000 people.

“Everybody who comes to Cirencester for the first time is blown away by our facilities – the 3G indoor pitch and the clubhouse which looks as good now as it did when it was built 15 years ago.

“We started in the Hellenic League and we won three promotions. We’ve punched well above our weight and I’m very proud of what we’ve achieved.”

Like all love affairs, however, there has been the odd hiccup along the way and Abbley admits he came close to quitting the club about five years ago over what he felt was a lack of support.

“I’m not sure Cirencester is a sporting town,” he said. “I’ve played in Swindon, Cheltenham and Wycombe and I felt there was much more of a community feel about those places.

“Our club is the envy of many non-league clubs but we’re grateful if we can get a crowd of 200 to our games. Normally we get 150 to 170.”

Abbley also feels the club should have received more support over the installation of its new 4G pitch which is due to be completed in early or mid-July.

The total cost is around £475,000 and Abbley said: “The Football Foundation and FA grants account for about £375,000 but we’ve had to find the extra £100,000 which has come from me or bank loans.

“This pitch will be available to schools and clubs at affordable rates throughout the week and will put us at the heart of the community.

“It ticks all the government boxes on healthy living, healthy lifestyles and fighting obesity but we’ve not received a penny from the district or town council and that’s my biggest disappointment.

“Dorchester Town Council gave the football club £250,000 towards their plastic pitch.”

Disappointed he may be but the highs have far outweighed the lows during his time at Cirencester.

He says proudly that he is the only player/chairman to have taken to the pitch in the Southern League and talks warmly of some of the managers and players who have served him at the club.

“I’ve not had many managers but Brian Hughes in two spells over eight years was tremendously successful,” he said. “He got us promoted but I felt he ran out of steam a bit this season.

“Ray Baverstock did a very good job and I’ve got high hopes for our current manager Charlie Griffin who has got a lot of good ideas.”

Abbley, who is married to Julie and has three children, Alexandra, Francesca and Michael, admitted it was tough to part company with long-time friends Hughes and Baverstock.

“It was extremely difficult,” he said. “Being in business, it’s the tough decisions that you have to make. They were football decisions, not friendship decisions.”

He said that the club have also had many good players and named the likes of Boyland, Mark Teasdale, Paul Thompson, Ady Viveash and Lee Smith.

He also spoke warmly about former striker Scott Griffin who now works for the club.

“I had high hopes for him in our academy,” he said. “I thought he was going to be a professional. He had all the talent and the ability.

“He could always buy you a foul around the area and scored a lot of goals.”

Abbley’s own playing career ended in the 1997-98 season at the age of 41. ”I loved the game, I loved to train and I could run,” he said.

“I remember my last game which we won 3-1 at Dartford. I took a knock on the head and it concussed me. I was sitting on the floor with blood pouring down my face and thinking, ‘Why am I doing this?’

“I stopped playing and that’s when I started the project.”

So how long does he intend staying at Cirencester?

“The next stage is to make the club a self-sustaining entity without needing my input and money,” he said. “My ambition is that when I walk away the club will be able to carry on as it is.”