Thirteen points from their last five games have pushed Stonehouse Town to the fringe of the play-offs in Division One of the Hellenic League.

Their 4-1 thumping of bottom-of-the-table Thame United Reserves on Saturday has lifted them up to sixth spot in the 18-strong division, one point and one place below the play-offs.

Their recent run has seen them enjoy 3-0 home wins over Shortwood United and Clanfield 85, while they have also won 4-1 at Ludlow Town.

The only points they have dropped in the past couple of months came at Bewdley Town where they drew 1-1, but that was a good result against the second-placed side who trail leaders Wantage Town only on goal difference.

“We’re doing alright,” said manager Adam Coyle, who took over in the summer.

Coyle, who was previously joint manager at Hellenic League Premier Division club Slimbridge, brought in Karl Nash and Matt Tunley to work alongside him and he said: “All three of us are pretty much new to this division.

“Matt had a short period at Shortwood but we’ve had to learn about the opposition, the league, the pitches, the players.

“We’ve had to learn about the group of players at the club, too, but we were always confident we could turn things around.”

Stonehouse, who have won eight and drawn four of their 16 league games, trail the leaders by 10 points but have at least one game in hand on all the teams above them except third-placed FC Stratford, but despite their recent run Coyle is not getting carried away.

“We’re certainly not saying we’ve cracked it,” he continued. “We’re not top of the league but we’re in a better place, we’re more confident.”

Stonehouse’s next league game isn’t until a week on Saturday when they host Woodford United.

They travel to Lydney Town for a GFA Challenge Trophy tie tonight and go to Wantage for a League Cup clash on Saturday and Coyle admitted: “The cup games are a bit of an unwanted distraction.

“My focus isn’t to win the County Cup or the League Cup, it’s to win promotion.

“That’s why I came to the club. The club’s aims and ambitions are simple, there is no confusion, they want to be playing in the leagues above.

“There’s no time limit and if promotion doesn’t happen this season, then we’ll have another push next season.”

And there are plenty of people helping to push the club forward behind the scenes.

“Stonehouse are a huge club and this is a huge area,” continued Coyle. “We run three adult teams and countless youth teams.

“I keep getting told that the club are a sleeping giant but I don’t like that, we’re wide awake and we’re moving in the right direction.”

They are certainly scoring plenty of goals – only two teams have scored more than their tally of 40 – and their goal difference of 19 is bettered only by three teams.

“Our goals against record isn’t too bad either,” added Coyle. “We’ve tried to keep it simple, the message is I want us to be fit, strong and organised, we look really solid.”