Bishop’s Cleeve Football Club are looking to kick on again this season.

And that’s some statement because they have just enjoyed the best campaign in their 120-year history, finishing third in the Southern League’s Division One South.

They also enjoyed a thumping 3-0 FA Cup success over Torquay United, from National League South, in front of a packed Kayte Lane back in September, so they are going to have to go some to improve on 2024/25.

But that’s certainly the target for Cleeve boss Paul Collicutt who told The Local Answer: “It’s the aim of myself, the players and the club.”

The club went so close to promotion last time out, reaching the play-offs before losing 3-2 at home to Malvern Town in front of another 1,000-plus crowd.

That was their final game of the campaign and while defeat was tough to take, the club are using it as motivation to push on again in 2025/26.

“We went into the changing room after the game and we were on a real downer, we weren’t in a good place,” admitted Collicutt.

“But Clive Rawlings, our vice-chairman, came into our dressing room and he was very, very upbeat.

“He said this was just the start, he said that we as a club want to go much further.”

And they have certainly been busy in the summer, bringing in a number of new players including former striker Jack Watts, who has returned for his fourth spell at the club.

At the time of writing, Toby Holland, Jake Lee, Luke Payne, Lewis Spurrier and Joe Keeping have also joined the club, with Collicutt saying that he needs “a squad of 18/19/20 players” for the upcoming season.

This will be the club’s third season back in the Southern League after winning the Hellenic League Premier Division title in 2022/23.

They finished mid-table in the first campaign and Collicutt said: “Hopefully we can be up there again this season, although I think the league will be even harder.”

Malvern will again be one of the teams to watch after losing 1-0 to Evesham United in the play-off final, but Collicutt has been in the game a long time and knows that every team in the division will be a threat.

Collicutt is a larger than life character who is in his second spell as manager of the club.

He first took charge at the back end of the 1990s and has played a huge part in the club’s rise in recent times.

In his previous time as manager he won promotion to the Hellenic League Premier Division and then to the Southern League for the first time in their history, and also took the club into the fourth qualifying round of the FA Cup.

He has lived in Bishop’s Cleeve since the age of nine – he played in Cleeve Colts’ first ever team more than 50 years ago – and went to school in the village.

He’s convinced that the club can push on and he’s not the only one because the fans are starting to turn up to Kayte Lane in their numbers to watch them play.

A recent game between Manchester United Legends and Bishop’s Cleeve Legends to kick-start their 120^th anniversary celebrations attracted another 1,000-plus gate and Collicutt said: “The club is very buoyant, hopefully the community will continue to get behind us.

“People keep saying to me how good the atmosphere is at the club and long may that continue.

“But the only way to keep it going is to keep on winning.

“We’ve got momentum at the club and we want people to come and watch us play. And when they’ve been we want them to come back again.”