Stonehouse Town are an ambitious football club.

Next year is their 125^th anniversary but while they are proud of their history, they are looking to the future with optimism.

“Stonehouse were the biggest club in the Stroud area in the 70s,” said chairman Nigel Sanders. “We’re a sleeping giant and we’re trying to kick the hell out of it to try to wake it up.”

Forest Green Rovers, who have enjoyed such a phenomenal rise in recent times, are obviously the top club in the area these days, but it’s fair to say that things seem to be moving in the right direction at Stonehouse too.

“The aim is to go as high as we can,” said Sanders, who has been chairman for the past seven or eight years.

“The sky is the limit, there’s a lot to look forward to. My aim for the next five years is to get into the Southern League.”

The club currently play in Division One of the Hellenic League so that means they would need two promotions, but that is something that Sanders believes is achievable.

“Our 2^nd team play in Division One of the Northern Senior League, which was where our 1^st team were playing when I took over as chairman,” said Sanders.

The club’s flagship team are in their fourth season in the Hellenic League and Sanders is hoping that new manager Craig Robinson can work some magic as they look to progress through the divisions.

Robinson took over as boss five games into the current league campaign. He replaced former Cheltenham Town and Portsmouth midfielder Chris Burns and although this is his first job as the main man in adult football, he knows exactly what he is about.

“It’s very much a project that my coaching staff and I have taken on,” said the 30-year-old.

“We’re trying to change the whole culture, philosophy and playing style of the club. It’s not a quick fix.

“We are trying to be more professional, we train twice a week, we want to change the mentality of the group.

“We’re trying to turn them into a team to compete in the division and one that will be at the top end of the division next season.”

And Robinson, who is assisted by Jason Radford, has a clear idea on how he wants his team to play.

“A high pressing, possession-based, positional-based style of football,” he said.

That fits in very much with the wishes of his chairman, who added: “If we play attractive football people will come to watch us.”

Stonehouse currently get crowds of about 75 at the Ben’s Takeaway Stadium, but Sanders hopes that a bit of success coupled with some good football could see them get crowds of 200 to 300.

A quick look at their records show they once played in front of a crowd of 5,500 in an FA Cup second qualifying round tie against Gloucester City in 1951, one of a good number of highlights in their history, a history that includes league and cup success.

As a Stonehouse man born and bred, Sanders knows all about their history. The recently-turned 57-year-old played for the club from the age of 14 to 20 before spending 20 years with near neighbours King’s Stanley, but these days he has eyes only for Stonehouse Town.

The club run a 3^rd team who play in Stroud League Division Four, a veterans’ team and six or seven youth teams, so there is an awful lot of football being played there.

There’s also an awful lot going on off the pitch too, with the club having new floodlights installed three years ago while a new, permanent pre-fab hospitality area should be open for business in the third week of December.

Sanders, a catering engineer, is hoping that the club’s supporters will be toasting plenty of wins in the new hospitality unit and in Robinson he thinks he’s got the right man to get those wins.

“He’s very organised,” said Sanders, “and he’s got good connections with a lot of youth players.”

That’s certainly true because Robinson, a self-employed gardener and tree surgeon who lives in Cheltenham, was in charge of Gloucester City’s under-18s and under-21s for four years.

He also looked after the under-15s at Cheltenham Saracens and was on the coaching staff at Brimscombe and Thrupp before moving to Stonehouse.

“I had meningitis when I was very young,” he said. “I played at a good level in junior football but stopped playing at 21 to go into coaching.”

Like Stonehouse Town, he is very ambitious and Forest Green Rovers, who were playing in the Hellenic League as recently as the early 80s, have given every football club reason to hope.

“Yes, they have,” said Robinson, who is relying on long-serving players such as captain Alex Kibble and Nick Humphreys, and young up and coming players such as Fin Fowler to help the club up the table.

“Look at some of the clubs in League Two now, they were minnows not so long ago.

“It is possible, so why not us? We’re in it for the long haul.”