Boss FC overcame the freezing conditions to get their game on at the weekend but they were unable to turn up the heat against Minchinhampton reserves.

The Stroud League Division Four game at Tuffley Park ended 0-0 in what was just one of two Stroud League games to be played on Saturday.

But although they drew a blank in front of goal, the point at least lifted Boss four places up the table to seventh in the 16-strong division. Minchinhampton reserves remain 13^th, four points adrift of Boss.

“The pitch was firm but playable,” said Boss player/manager Kevin Roy, who is also the club’s chairman. “I thought it was fine but our problem at the moment is that we’re not putting the ball in the back of the net.”

They have failed to score in three of their last four league and cup games – the other game was a 3-3 draw at home to Cotswold Rangers – and their relatively dry run, which has seen them lose two and draw two, follows an impressive run when they were banging in the goals for fun.

“It’s been a bit of a mixed bag,” admitted 39-year-old Roy, who is a right-back. “We started the season slowly and then we had some good results.”

Those good results included a 11-1 success against Sharpness 3rds when Grant Renouf-Preece and Sanchez Grange both bagged hat-tricks and a 7-0 win at Cam Everside Wanderers when Joshua Higgs got four.

Grange and Higgs were the club’s leading goalscorers last season – they got 24 and 22 respectively – as Boss finished runners-up in Division Six.

That was their first full season in the Stroud League and the league’s restructuring at the end of the campaign meant that they were pushed up two divisions for 2022/23.

The club were only formed in 2016 – Roy has been manager since day one – and they started life as a Sunday club playing in the Gloucester Sunday League where they enjoyed plenty of success before switching across to the Stroud League for the 2020/21 season, a season that was abbreviated because of Covid.

Boss, who have won four and drawn three of their 10 league games this season, host Tredworth Tigers reserves on Saturday, with Roy, who used to play for Abbeymead Rovers in the Northern League, hoping that they can rediscover their goalscoring touch.

“We want to keep progressing, we want to go as high as we can,” he said. “I’d love to get into the Northern Senior League.”

The only other Stroud League game on Saturday was also in Division Four, with high-flying Longlevens 4^ths proving too strong for visitors Sharpness 3rds. The 7-2 win lifted Longlevens up to second place in the table, seven points behind unbeaten leaders Stratton United but with two games in hand.