Given their name, it’s easy to say that Cam’s footballers have the bulldog spirit.

But it’s also fair comment as well because Cam Bulldogs are a football club that refuse to stand still despite a number of obstacles in their way.

Chief among them is their facilities, which are not deemed good enough for the County League.

That is a source of real frustration for chairman Russ Workman as he watches the first team mount another assault on the Northern Senior League Division One title.

They won it in 2015/16, were runners-up last season and are well in the frame to win it again this year.

Ordinarily that would be good enough to earn them promotion, but Workman is enough of a realist to know that even if they do finish on top of the Northern Senior League pile, they will be plying their trade at the same level again next season.

“We need barriers round the pitch, dugouts, two changing rooms for the officials,” he said.

None of those are present at their current Cam Sports Ground home, which is also home to the village’s cricket and tennis clubs.

The club do have options – moving to Norman Hill in Cam or to Everside Lane, which is home to Cam Everside Youth Football Club – but as is so often the case with options of this nature there are always issues to overcome.

“It’s paramount that we get things sorted,” said Workman, who is in his second season as chairman. “We need to get things sorted yesterday.

“If we win the title again this season and we can’t get promoted, what will the players do? They want to play at the highest level possible.

“As it happens I think we’ve got a good bunch of players who will stay and give it another go. Most of them are from the Cam area and a lot of them came through from Cam Eversides, which is the youth team in the village.”

Cam Eversides are a separate entity from Cam Bulldogs, even though there is a steady flow of players from the junior club through to adult football.

And there are certainly plenty of opportunities at Cam Bulldogs because the club run three teams – the other two play in Division Two and Division Six of the Stroud League.

“Not many clubs run three teams so we must be doing something right,” said Workman. “The 2nd team won Division Three the season before last and 3rd team are set up to bring the youth players through.”

Workman knows all about the 2nd and 3rd teams because he has been player/manager of both.

“I was looking after the thirds when I was 20,” he said with some pride, “although some people say I only got in the 2nds and 3rds because I was selecting the teams!”

Still only 32, Workman has also been secretary of the club as well as their main fundraiser.

Those fundraising activities include a golf day at nearby Stinchcombe Hill, as well as end-of-season dinners with a high-profile after-dinner speaker.

Some of the names that have shared their footballing stories include Neil Ruddock, Paul Merson and Ray Parlour, and this year the guest speaker will be one-time Liverpool goalkeeper Bruce Grobbelaar.

Grobbelaar, of course, is famous for his ‘wobbly knees’ which helped the Reds win a famous penalty shootout against Roma and with it the European Cup in 1984.

And while Grobbelaar is sure to tell that wobbly knees story when he visits Cam in April, Workman is firm and to the point when talking about his beloved football club.

“We’re a club that are going places but the problem is that we’re not going fast enough,” he said. “We’ve hit a bit of a brick wall through no real fault of our own, and yes we do need some help because running a football club costs a lot of money.

“What we have got is an excellent committee. It’s a very young committee, we’ve got a very good team behind the team.”

The flagship team aren’t too bad either. In fact, they’re very good and manager Simon Penny has certainly done a sterling job since taking over five years ago.

“He’s the most successful manager we’ve ever had,” said Workman. “If he keeps going the way he is he’ll get the freedom of the village!”

Mind you, Penny would be the first to admit that he’s got some pretty good players as well.

“Ben Jagger is our club captain,” said Workman. “He’s our goalkeeper and has been with us for 11 years so has been through the good and the bad times.

“Then there’s Jake Parrot. He makes us tick. He’s an ex-captain of Shortwood United and played against Port Vale in the FA Cup a few years ago.

“And it would be wrong not to mention Adam Philp who is our main striker. He scored 50-plus goals the year we won the title and has scored 40-plus goals for the past five seasons.

“He scored a hat-trick against Chalford in 25 minutes the other week and that’s pretty good going because they are one of the main challengers for the title.

“And we’ve also got Pete Holder who is our vice-captain and centre-half. He’s proof that we do bring the youth through to the first team.”

So clearly everything is good on the pitch, it’s just off it that things need to move forward. And Cam Bulldogs surely couldn’t have a better man doing the driving forward than Russ Workman.