“I’ve always wanted to set up my own football club, I’ve achieved a dream of mine.”

So says David Frost, chairman of Nailsworth Town, who are in their first season in Division Six of the Stroud League.

And they are doing very well, too, because a quick look at the league table tells you that they have scored 62 goals in 10 games, nine of which have been won, form that not surprisingly sees them in pole position.

But what makes this season just a little bit more special for Frost is that he was born just up the road from Nailsworth, so it really is a club very close to his heart.

“There’s never been a Nailsworth Town Football Club before,” said the 46-year-old.

“That’s what I’ve done, I wanted to do something different.”

Frost, who was born in Forest Green and educated at Thomas Keble School, is a familiar figure in football circles around the area because last season he was chairman of Oxstalls United, who played in Division Seven of the Stroud League, which was then the league’s basement division. 

That was to be their only campaign, with pretty much all of their players now at Nailsworth Town.

“About halfway through last season I heard that a pitch at King George V playing fields in Nailsworth was going to be available,” said Frost.

“That was it, we were always going to be Nailsworth Town this season, I put all my energy into that, the facilities are second to none.”

The club have some 38 players signed on and are managed by Steve Harrison, who began last season in charge of Woodchester and then took over at Oxstalls United when the two clubs merged.

And Harrison is clearly doing a very good job at Nailsworth thanks in part to the red hot form of strike pairing Merlin Dawson and Adam Whitfield, who have got 17 and 14 goals respectively in the league this season.

“We’re great fun to watch, we’ve been scoring a lot of goals,” said Frost. “We had a really good game against Taverners reserves a couple of weeks ago.

“We won 4-2 but it was much closer, it was the kind of game we needed.”

And Frost, in turn, believes the town of Nailsworth needs its own football club.

“I’ve been thinking about Nailsworth Town for such a long time,” he said. “I want this to be a club the town can be proud of.”

And Frost says this is just the start.

“I’ve got a five-year plan,” he continued. “I want to run two teams, I want a ladies’ team, a vets’ team, youth teams.”

And he’s thinking beyond just football.

“We might have a rugby side, a netball side and a cricket team,” he added. “I want to build a brand that is Nailsworth Town.”

Not everything will happen overnight, of course, although the aim is certainly to have a second men’s football team in 2023/24.

And while they clearly have the numbers for a reserve team, the Division Six side will need to win promotion this season for that to happen.

Frost, a former player with Cashes Green reserves and Randwick, is clearly passionate about Nailsworth Town, so what is it that drives him forward?

“I wasn’t a very good footballer,” he admitted, “but I just loved playing the game, I’d play anywhere.

“I worry that since Covid, grassroots sport is dying, I want to see all clubs prosper so that the youngsters have the opportunity to play sport.”

Nailsworth, who moved into the last eight of the County Primary Cup (North) last weekend after overcoming fellow Division Six side Stratton United reserves 3-2 courtesy of a late Adam Whitfield penalty, host Gala Wilton 4ths in the league on Saturday.