There’s an upbeat mood around Dursley Town Football Club.

And while that may come as a surprise to some after two successive relegations – the flagship team are playing in Division One of the Stroud League this season – it’s clear that the feelgood factor has returned to the one-time County League club.

That in large part is due to the return of former player Karl Nash, who has left Brimscombe and Thrupp to become Dursley’s player/manager.

“He’s dropped five divisions to join us,” said club stalwart Don Small. “He’s a big centre-forward and he’s been scoring 30 goals a season for Brimscombe so he should have some fun with us.”

He certainly should! Nash started his footballing life with Dursley as an eight or nine year old so his return has been welcomed by everyone connected with the club.

And as so often happens, good news often comes in twos and that is very much the case at Dursley because Nash’s brother Antony is Dursley’s new chairman.

Antony is not expected to play this season but Small added: “It’s great to have them back. Their dad Phil played in goal for us about 15 years ago and between them they have played hundreds of games for the club.”

And it’s not just the Nash family who have got everyone talking positively about Dursley Town Football Club again.

The club are also celebrating their 125th anniversary so It would appear the only way is up for a club who finished as high as third in the County League in the 1990s because not only did their first team get relegated last season, their second team did too and are playing in Division Five of the Stroud League this season.

“That’s how bad it was last season,” admitted Small. “Five or six years ago we were running four teams but last season we had only twoside and we had to cancel four games because we didn’t have enough players.

“It wasn’t that players were leaving us to join other clubs, they’d just stopped playing football.”

The mood is certainly very different now with Small reporting that as many as 50 to 60 players have been attending pre-season training.

So what’s the aim this season?

“I think we need to consolidate,” said club treasurer Small, 63.

And while some at the club may well be hoping for more than that for the coming season, there is certainly no doubt that in the medium and long term the club are certainly looking to grow and develop.

“We want to bring Dursley Town Ladies and Dursley Town Girls under one umbrella with the football club,” said Small. “And we want to have a youth set-up in position by the season after next.”

The club ran a youth set-up up until five years ago or so and Small, for one, certainly knows how important it is to give youngsters an opportunity.

“We moved to this area 27 years ago,” recalled Small, “and my son Richard was encouraged to join the club’s junior section by Lee Thomas, who is the son of our president Bern Thomas.”

Richard Small moved to London some 16 years ago but his dad has remained very much part of the club.

“I put up the nets, I clean the changing rooms, I drive the minibus,” he said. “We’re trying to get more people involved in the club.

“We don’t want people going home at 4.45pm on a Saturday.”

And even though Small never played football himself – “I once played in a lads v dads game, it hurt too much afterwards,” he laughed – you know that he, for one, will continue to give as much time as possible to the club he has been involved with for the best part of three decades.