Old Richians head to fellow high-fliers Wickwar Wanderers on Saturday knowing that a win could send them to the top of Division One of the Stroud League.

They need other results to go their way too but it’s still a very impressive turnaround for a club who finished 11^th from 13 last season.

“We finished comfortably above relegation but we didn’t have a goalkeeper,” said club secretary Robert Mills.

“I was our longstanding goalkeeper but I injured my knee when I collided with another player last October and we weren’t able to recruit a replacement.

“We used five or six players and we never really had any consistency at the back.”

Mills, who is 31, is waiting for an operation but hopes to be back in January or February, and in the meantime manager Rob Lacey has brought in goalkeeper Nick Sheppard from Gloster Rovers.

“They play in Division Four of the Stroud League but he’s played at a higher level than that,” continued Mills. “He’s hit the ground running, he’s been a breath of fresh air.

“We’re much more solid at the back and he’s building up a great relationship with the centre-halves.

“He’s the missing piece of the jigsaw. You’ve got to have a good goalkeeper, Division One is quite a good standard of football.”

Old Richians have conceded 10 goals in their opening seven league games this season – they’ve scored 18 – and are fifth in the 14-strong division, level on 15 points with Stroud United and Tetbury Town and a point behind leaders Taverners and Wickwar.

Old Richians ended Taverners’ unbeaten start to the campaign with a 3-0  win at home 12 days ago and Mills said: “That result has given the lads a lot of confidence.

“We want to put a marker down this season and we think we have put a marker own with our performances.

“We’ve lost a couple of games but that was when people were on holiday, we’ve got the same squad for Wickwar that we had for Taverners.”

Wickwar are the only unbeaten team in the division – they drew 0-0 at Taverners at the weekend – and like Stroud and Tetbury have played a game fewer than Taverners and Old Richians.

“I went to watch Wickwar play Taverners last week, it was an even game,” said Mills. “It’s always a close game between us, they are a good footballing team.

“There are arguably five or six teams who can win the Stroud League this season, anyone can beat anyone on any given day.

“We’re really looking forward to Saturday, we’re in a good place, it’s a massive game.”