Cricket’s World Cup is still in full flow, The Open golf championship is still two or three weeks away and this year’s Wimbledon is only just about to start.

All three are top events of course but while thousands of people around Gloucestershire are enjoying their diet of summer sport, the footballers at Fintan are already looking forward to cooler days, darker nights and the onset of autumn and winter.

The players at the Cheltenham League club will return to pre-season training towards the end of July and long-time servant of the club Kevin Wilcox is excited by what lies ahead even though they had a tough campaign last time out.

Wilcox, 29, was part of the team when they formed in 2007 and the club are looking to rekindle the spirit of those early years after a season that saw them win just two of their 22 games in Division One of the Cheltenham League.

They also had to pull their reserve team out of Division Four due to a shortage of players but Wilcox, who is helping player/manager Chris Stevenson run the first team, is confident the good times will return.

And the signs are certainly good because the club will have two teams competing in the Cheltenham League in 2019/20 with a reserves side playing in Division Four.

The club started life in Division Six of the Cheltenham League when they had just the one team so even allowing for a number of league structural reorganisations, they know what it’s like to have success and win promotion.

They ran two teams for six or seven years – Wilcox played in goal for the reserves last season before they dropped out of the league – and the flagship team will be playing in Division Two in the coming season.

“I think that’s the right level for us at the moment,” said Wilcox. “We got pushed up to Division One last season when the league was reorganised and I think that proved too great a challenge for the group of players.

“When we started we had a really good base, we need to lay the foundations again and steady the ship. We need to roll back the years.”

The club play their home games at King George V playing fields and have already arranged pre-season friendlies against teams from Chalford, Tuffley Rovers, Trident and Tewkesbury Athletic.

They will also play an in-house friendly against the Fintan legends 2008/09 squad.

Anybody interested in joining Fintan can email the club at admin@fintanfc.co.uk