Free-scoring Gloucester City return to league action after the Christmas and new year break with an eye-catching home game against in-form Swansea on Saturday.

The Welsh club are setting a fast pace at the top of West Hockey Men’s Division 1 North after winning eight and drawing one of their opening 10 games, and they are 10 points clear of fifth-placed Gloucester.

But while they have been piling up the points, one area where they haven’t been able to match Gloucester is in the number of goals scored.

Gloucester have scored 34 in their 10 games, three more than Swansea, and they’ve enjoyed some standout results – 8-2 at home to Lansdown, 4-2 at Ross-on-Wye, 6-1 at Whitchurch 2nds and 7-2 at home to Royal Wootton Bassett.

They’ve also drawn 4-4 at home to Chippenham and 3-3 at home to Mendip, so they've certainly been entertaining their supporters in the first half of the campaign.

Centre-forward Charlie Renfrew is in his first season as captain and Danny Ashton has taken over as player/coach, and team manager Puv Samra said: “We want to play a style of game that is fun and that means attacking.

“We want to be creative. Our ethos is that if you see a pass, then go for it. Don’t play with inhibition, the mindset is always to play a forward pass if you can.”

It hasn’t always worked, of course, because they’ve lost three games this season, most recently 4-1 at Swindon at the beginning of December.

“It can be frustrating,” admitted Samra, who tore his knee ligaments in the summer after being a first-team regular for Gloucester for the past seven or eight years.

“We’ve chucked away a couple of leads but the way we play is very exciting, the team are in a really good place.”

Gloucester finished fourth last season and Samra continued: “We’re in the upper half of the league and realistically the aim is to finish third.

“We want to be as near to the top as possible but there’s no pressure, we’re happy to be in this division. We’re competitive and enjoy playing in it.”

Gloucester’s attacking players are certainly enjoying playing in the division this season with Matthew Luxton leading the way with six goals while Ian Ewart and Renfrew have both scored five.

Renfrew, who is Gloucester through and through, came through the club’s youth system and Samra said: “We want to provide a pathway through to the club’s first team, we’re trying to do things the right way.

“We’ve got quite a few younger players in the first-team squad, our 2nds are top of their division and the 3rds and 4ths are doing well too.”

The 2nds are top of Cotswold Division 1 after wining their first 10 games – they’ve scored 44 goals – and Samra continued: “We’re a family club, we’re a club where you can play good recreational hockey and have a beer after the game.”

The beer tastes just that bit better if you’re winning, of course, and Samra is especially keen for the flagship team to start the new year in style because he spent five years at Swansea.

And he’s not alone because Ewart and Tom Newman are also former Swansea players.

Gloucester, are set to give a debut to former Cardiff & Met attacker Charlie Hunte on Saturday.