The big games are coming thick and fast for Whaddon United in Division One of the Cheltenham League.

A week after drawing 2-2 at home to table-topping Tewkesbury Town, they travel to in-form Prestbury Rovers who have climbed into the top four in recent weeks.

A win for Prestbury would see them move a point ahead of Whaddon, albeit they will have played one game more.

Not that that will be easy for the home side against a club who dropped out of Northern Senior League Division One at the end of last season and are the only unbeaten team in the top flight, having won six and drawn three of their nine games.

It’s a run that has taken them up to second place, five points behind Tewkesbury but with two games in hand.

“We’re having a good season,” said Whaddon boss Kev Taylor, who took over as the main man at the start of the campaign.

And 60-year-old Taylor, who is very well known in football circles around Cheltenham and beyond, is in no doubt about what the club’s aims are this season.

“I’m a Whaddon boy and I want to win the division,” he said. “My aim is to win the Cheltenham League.

“I’ve won every division in the Cheltenham League as a manager or a player going back to when there were seven divisions, but I’ve never won Division One, the best I’ve finished was runners-up when I was playing at Leckhampton.”

The title is still very much in Whaddon’s hands, of course, even though Taylor reckons that they missed a chance to take closer order at the top last weekend when a late penalty gave Tewkesbury a share of the spoils.

“It felt like a loss on Saturday,” he admitted. “We were 2-1 up with eight minutes to go and then we missed a great chance to make it 3-1, they’d never have come back from that.

“Then Tewkesbury had a player sent off but that seemed to unsettle us, and we gave away a penalty and they scored. All credit to them.”

Taylor is expecting another big challenge on Saturday.

“I’ve got a lot of respect for Prestbury,” he said. “They’re one of the clubs I used to play for, they’re dark horses for the title.”

Three points for Whaddon on Saturday would put daylight between the two teams, however, while at the same time closing the gap to two points on Tewkesbury, who are without a game on Saturday.

So, would Whaddon return to the Northern Senior League if they won the title this season?

“That’s to be discussed,” admitted Taylor, “it’s down to the players. I’ll go where the players want to go. If they want to go up, great, if they want to stay in the Cheltenham League, so will I. I’m enjoying it.”

Win their two games in hand and they will go top, of course, although if they do there will still be plenty of hard work ahead.

“It’s hard to get to the top but it’s even harder staying there,” said Taylor. “But we’re on Tewkesbury’s tails and they know we’re there.”

Eight of last season’s team are still at Whaddon and Taylor has “a good nucleus of young players” to call on as well.

He’d like more youngsters but is delighted with the players who are currently doing so much for the club.

“We like to play football,” he said. “We knock it about, and we play in the right spirit. We’re battlers, we play good, hard football.”

And Taylor plans to be in charge for a good while yet.

“I love football,” he said, “I put my heart and soul into it.”

Saturday’s Cheltenham League Fixtures:

Division 1
Bredon Reserves v Bishop’s Cleeve FC A
Cheltenham CS Reserves v Shurdington Rovers
Kings v Dowty Dynamos
Newton v Malvern Vale FC
Prestbury Rovers v Whaddon United
Southside Star FC v Hanley Swan

Division 2
Brockworth A Reserves v Smiths Barometrics Ath Res
Gala Wilton Reserves v Prestbury Rovers Reserves
Pittville United v Andoversford Reserves
St Paul’s United v Leckhampton Rovers

Division 3
303 Squadron v Cheltenham Civil Service 3rds
Charlton R Reserves v Southside Star FC Reserves
Falcons Reserves v Smiths Barometrics Athletic 3rds
FC Lakeside Reserves v Malvern Vale FC Reserves
Tewkesbury T Reserves v Cheltenham United

Division 4
AFC Renegades Res v Pittville United Reserves
Apperley v Tewkesbury Athletic
Cheltenham Saras 3rds v Winchcombe Town Reserves
Fintan Reserves v Bishop’s Cleeve Development
Kempsey Corinthians FC v Charlton Rovers 3rds
Woodmancote United v AFC Cheltenham