Cheltenham Saracens have made a quickfire start to the new Gloucester Premier campaign, continuing where they left off at the end of last season.

Four wins out of four have propelled them into the top three, just a point behind joint leaders Spartans and Widden Old Boys, who have both enjoyed four bonus-point wins.

On Saturday, Saracens travel to Widden so at least one of the top three will lose their 100 per cent record this season.

Spartans, meanwhile, who host Widden on 27th October, travel to St Mary’s Old Boys on Saturday.

Saracens will head to Widden in confident mood after making it nine league wins in a row with a 25-15 success over Bristol Saracens in their most recent league game.

And while the victories this season have taken them close to the summit they needed the wins at the back end of last season for entirely different reasons.

A 25-point deduction imposed in March for fielding an ineligible player plunged the club into a relegation battle, a battle they eventually won as they finished 10th in the 12-strong division.

And they’ve continued their fine end-of-season form this time around with chairman Jimmy O’Shea saying: “It’s been brilliant, we couldn’t have asked for anything better.

“You like to think it might happen but when it does it’s even better. We’ve got a good team, both the 1sts and the 2nds.

“Beating Bristol Saracens was a very, very good result and we’ve also beaten Longlevens, we couldn’t have asked for any more.”

O’Shea is also delighted with the work being done by new coach Gareth Evans.

The Gloucester rugby star has taken over from former team-mates Billy Burns and Jacob Rowan and O’Shea said: “He’s settled in very well, he’s a good lad.”

And while O’Shea is very happy with the club’s position in the table he admits that he wants more.

“Promotion is the goal,” he said, “we’d love to get that. The boys have trained very, very hard, it’s pulling together quite nicely.”