New year, more of the same for the Stroud Football League as they look forward to their first round of games in 2023.

And the players will certainly be primed and ready for Saturday because a good number of the 87 teams who make up the six-division Stroud League were involved in games on New Year’s Eve.

“We had a significant number of teams playing, even though there was a lot of water around,” said league and fixtures secretary Jeff Willerton.

And while 2022 ended on a high for the league with a pretty full programme of matches, there is certainly plenty to look forward to in the second half of the campaign.

“We’re nearing the stage – mid-to-late January – when the bottom four divisions will be split between the top teams and the bottom teams,” Willerton continued.

“We’ve been fortunate with the weather, certainly up to the beginning of December. Most of the teams have played 10 games or more so they know where they are, the table doesn’t lie.”

This is the first time that the Stroud League have introduced split divisions – it’s based on the system used at the top level in Scottish football – and Willerton said the aim was to provide more competitive football for every team.

“It will be top team against top team in each division and bottom team against bottom team,” explained Willerton.

The split divisions have not been introduced in the top two divisions but those clubs – there are 13 teams in the top flight and 12 in the second tier – will still have plenty to play for over the next four months.

“The League Cup competitions for the top two divisions started last Saturday,” added Willerton. “This weekend sees the start of the competitions for the teams in divisions three and four, and the following weekend it’s the turn of divisions five and six.”

The competition sees the top of Division Three pitted against the top of Division Four, with the bottom teams in Division Three having their own competition against the bottom teams in Division Four.

It’s the same for divisions five and six and Willerton said: “When we reach the semi-finals it means 24 teams in the league will still have a chance of winning something, which is a sizeable number. Everyone has got something to play for and aspire to.”

Throw in the fact that there will be end-of-season play-offs in the bottom four divisions for the first time this season, with the top two automatically promoted and the play-offs for the final promotion spot being between the teams placed from third to sixth, and it’s easy to see why the league is in such rude health.

“There’s also the County Cup competitions,” said Willerton. “They’ve reached the quarter-finals and about half the places are taken by teams from the Stroud League. We’ve got seven of the eight teams still in the County Cup Primary North.”

Those last eight ties will be played a week on Saturday. Meanwhile, Willerton said that the Stroud League is aiming to complete all their fixtures by the end of the first week in May.