The new Northern Senior League football season gets under way on Saturday and Bibury are ready to turn up the heat.

They host holders Brockworth Albion in the first round of the Reg Davis Cup, one of 16 ties that will be played in three days’ time.

“We’re ready to go,” said Bibury secretary Les Smith. “We’ve been training for six weeks and had four or five pre-season games.”

Brockworth defeated Tredworth Tigers 2-1 in last season’s final but this week they lost joint mangers Jamie Martin and Joel White, who have left the club to take on a similar role at Hellenic League Premier Division side Brimscombe & Thrupp.

Not that Smith thinks their departure will make Bibury’s task any easier.

“It will be a tough game,” he said.

Bibury finished two places and 13 points behind fourth-placed Brockworth in the 16-strong Northern Senior League Division One last season with Smith admitting they “tailed away” towards the end of the campaign.

This season they are running a reserve team for the first time in 10 years – they’ll play in Division Two of the Cheltenham League – and there is certainly plenty of optimism at the Cotswolds club going into the 2024/25 campaign.

“The aim is to win the Northern Senior League, get promotion and get into the County League,” said Smith. “It will be difficult; Tewkesbury, Tredworth, Whaddon and  Dursley will all be strong, it will be tough.”

The winners of Saturday’s tie will have a home game against the winners of the Mushet & Coalway United/Frampton United Reserves clash with Smith adding: “The way the draw has worked out, all four of our games before the final, if we win them, will be at home.”

Meanwhile, the experienced Mark Temple will take temporary charge of Brockworth alongside club captain Tom Willetts following the departure of Martin and White. Temple was assistant manger last season.

“It’s far from ideal being so close to the start of the season but we will get through it,” said chairman David Evans. “We will continue to be strong.”

Elsewhere, last season’s runners-up Tredworth, who went so close to the Division One title last season before losing out to Chalford in the final game, host Lydney Town Reserves on Saturday, while last season’s Division Two champions Whaddon United entertain Kings Stanley.