The goals have been flowing and the wins have been coming for Gala Wilton in the Gloucestershire County League this season.

Eight games in and they are setting the pace in the 16-strong division, having won six and drawn one, and their 2-0 win at Stoke Gifford at the weekend took their goals tally to 25.

But while the stats make very good reading, chairman Lee Sheridan is refusing to get carried away.

“I’m a firm believer that local sport comes in waves,” he said. “When you’re on top of the wave the key is how long you can ride the wave.”

Sheridan, a former player who has been chairman of the club for the past four years, has been in football long enough to know that there may well be some tough times ahead this season but he is, nonetheless, optimistic about the immediate future.

“We want to progress as a football club,” he said. “We respect that a lot of other clubs want to too, it’s very much a dog eat dog world in local football, but our ambition is to win promotion.”

The next step up for the club is the Hellenic League, a level Gala Wilton have never played at in their 70-year history, but although that is the aim Sheridan insisted: “We’ll keep within budget.”

Gala Wilton mean a lot to Sheridan, a club he has been involved with for more than two decades.

He took up refereeing for four years but kept in touch with the club and he took over as chairman after hanging up his whistle.

And one of the big reasons for his current optimism is 1^st team manager Stu Griffith.

Griffith, who is assisted by Jonathan Clay and Andrew Moody, took over at the start of last season and Sheridan said: “This is his first manager’s job and he’s been a great find. He was a footballer for many years at Tuffley Rovers and last season he took us to a very respectable fifth place in the County League.

“He’s got a great rapport with the players, he’s a very good organiser and he’s changed the culture of the club in terms of expectations.

“I’m so glad we’ve got him. My aim now is to keep him, although I expect that to be quite a challenge in the future.”

And while the flagship team are flying high – they host Hardwicke in the County League on Saturday – Sheridan is keen to stress that there are three other adult teams competing in divisions one, three and six of the Stroud League and enjoying their own success.

“Our reserves won promotion and the plate trophy last season,” said Sheridan. “The 3rds finished second and won the league cup, and our 4ths came fifth and were runners-up in the league cup.”

And while that was obviously impressive, there was something that pleased Sheridan even more than the on-field success.

“I said to everyone at our presentation evening, the biggest thing for me was that we never called a game off all season,” he said. “Every week we had at least 13 players for each team, which in the current climate in local football is some achievement.”

The club also run an under-12 team who compete in the Severn Valley Youth League, so there is certainly plenty of football being played at Gala Wilton.

“We’re a football club with a good reputation, good pedigree and good facilities,” said Sheridan, whose son Harvey plays for the 2nds.

The success of any grassroots clubs relies hugely on hard-working volunteers, of course, and Gala Wilton are no different, although, sadly, they lost one of their stalwart committee members in September.

“Roy Leese is a huge loss, he was a tremendous man,” said Sheridan. “He washed the kit, cleaned the changing rooms, he was the man behind the scenes. He was a great servant to the club, he was brilliant, his grandson Dan Leese plays for the 3rds.”