Clive Wilkes is one of the grand old men of football in Gloucestershire.

The 69-year-old one-time Premier League referee remains a keen supporter of the beautiful game and is actively involved, too, in his role as president of the North Gloucestershire League.

He’s a hands-on president, a role he took on when he hung up his whistle in 2003, and while he obviously wants to see the league prosper he wants to see all football in Gloucestershire prosper.

That’s something the fans of Cheltenham Town, Forest Green Rovers and Gloucester City want for their clubs too, of course, as they look ahead to the big kick-off on Saturday.

All three clubs had tough campaigns last time out with Cheltenham dropping out of League One, Forest Green dropping out of the Football League and Gloucester dropping into the Southern League.

“It was not a nice thing to witness, we all want the leading clubs in Gloucestershire to do well,” said Wilkes, who lives in Corse. “It’s beneficial to everyone when they do well, there’s a feel-good factor that filters down to the rest of football in the county.”

Michael Flynn at Cheltenham, Steve Cotterill at Forest Green and Mike Cook at Gloucester are the managers charged with reviving their club’s fortunes and all three have plenty of experience.

Flynn took over in the summer following Darrell Clarke’s departure to Barnsley and has a pretty impressive managerial CV, one that includes 250 games in charge at Newport County.

As it happens, Newport are the visitors to Cheltenham on Saturday and there will certainly be plenty of new faces on show for Flynn’s first game in charge, so how does Wilkes think Cheltenham will fare this season?

“Hopefully they will be challenging but I think they are more likely to be a mid-table team,” he said. “They’ve had players coming in and players leaving the club, they’ll need to find their feet.

“I think it will take another season for them to build again, I don’t think they’ve got the finances of some of the other clubs in the division.”

Flynn, who has also been in charge at Walsall and Swindon Town, enjoyed great success at Newport, a club for whom he also played.

“He’s been around for a while,” said Wilkes. “He’s a manager who knows this level of football.”

Cotterill, meanwhile, knows what it takes to get a club into the Football League having guided Cheltenham to what was then the Football Conference title back in 1998/99.

Cheltenham-born Cotterill enjoyed a stunning five or so seasons with his hometown club which culminated in promotion to League One via the play-offs in 2001/02.

Since then he’s managed in the Championship at the likes of Burnley, Stoke City, Portsmouth, Nottingham Forest, Birmingham City and Bristol City.

He arrived at Forest Green towards the backend of last season when they were already looking odds-on to be relegated for a second season in a row.

It’s been a tough couple of years for the club, so how does Wilkes think Cotterill will fare in the coming campaign?

“I know Steve well, I used to train with him when he was at Cheltenham,” said Wilkes. “If anyone can turn things around, then Steve Cotterill is the man to do it.

“He’s not there just to be an average National League side, he’ll want to bounce straight back and he’s brought in some good players with plenty of experience.”

Forest Green begin their campaign at Aldershot and Wilkes continued: “They won’t be easy, that’s never an easy place to go.

“I’d love it if they went straight back up but it’s a tough, tough league. The top half of the division are equally as good as the bottom half of League Two.

“I think Forest Green need to start pretty well, I’d have thought their best chance of getting back up quickly is in their first season.

“The longer clubs stay in the National League, the more difficult it is to get out of it, a lot of teams have found that.”

And while Forest Green’s supporters will be hoping for a promotion-winning season, that’s something that will be very much in the minds of Gloucester’s fans as they prepare for life in Southern League Premier South after finishing second-from-bottom in National League North.

Cook is in his second spell as manager having replaced former England goalkeeper Tim Flowers in September, so how does Wilkes think the club will fare in 2024/25?

“They had a lot of youngsters last season,” he said. “They’ve had to cut their budget, you can’t bankrupt the club.

“Before Covid they had a great squad, they were top of the league when the season ended early and they’ve never seemed to recover.”

Gloucester travel to Taunton Town for the league opener and Wilkes added: “Mike Cook is an experienced chap, he knows what’s what.

“It will be interesting, if they can get a good start… but it’s a tough league.”

And one final question for Wilkes... is he happy to be referred to as ‘one of the grand old men of football in Gloucestershire’?

“It’s perfectly okay,” he said with a laugh.