“It’s been the best season in our history.”

Those are the words of Old Richians manager Rob Lacey as he reflects on an impressive body of a work that has seen the club win Division One of the Stroud League for the first time, win promotion to the Northern Senior League for the first time and also win the League Cup.

“It’s been fantastic,” continued Lacey. “I think the club have been going for about 75 years, we’ve achieved things that we’ve never achieved before.”

Old Richians won the Division One title after winning 15 and drawing four of their 22 games, finishing four points clear of Tuffley Rovers Reserves, the team they beat in a penalty shootout to win the League Cup on Bank Holiday Monday.

And yet despite all the success, Lacey admits to having doubts at the start of the campaign about how well they would do even though they finished second in Division One to Wickwar Wanderers in 2024/25.

 “We had a couple of injuries in pre-season and then we had to bring in a new goalkeeper, I thought it was going to be a bit of a challenge,” he said.

“But as the season went on we got a bit of momentum and started to think we could do something special.

“We kept performing and digging in when we really needed to.”

New goalkeeper Alex Millard was a big part of their success, including saving two spot-kicks in the penalty shootout four days ago.

“He’s been fantastic,” continued Lacey. “He played for us a couple of years ago, he’s done really well.”

As have the whole team, even though they scored a lot more goals in the previous campaign.

“This year I think the group has understood that rotation is key,” said Lacey. “They’ve understood their roles and the key moments.

“In the previous season we were maybe a bit gung-ho, we’d try to get a win rather than digging in and realising a draw maybe was a good result which would put pressure on the other teams. The whole group mentality has changed.”

Winning the league was always the number one aim and the League Cup success was the icing on the cake.

The final, which was played at Longlevens, finished 1-1 after 90 minutes – William Matthews scored Old Richians’ goal – before the drama of the shootout which Old Richians won 5-4.

“We scored all five of our penalties, but Alex made two crucial saves,” said Lacey.

Ben Smith scored the decisive penalty with their others scored by Ross Peters, Jake Lowe, Aaron Lowe and Paul Gorick.

Lacey says he is already looking forward to next season.

“It’s all new, it’s very exciting,” he said. “It’s great for the players, a lot of the lads have been at the club for a while.”