Cheltenham Saracens Football Club are fired up and ready for the new season as they chase a place among the Hellenic League’s elite.

They came very, very close to realising their aim last season, finishing second in Division One West, just three points behind Easington Sports after winning 16 of their 22 league games.

Unfortunately for Saracens just one team were promoted to the Premier Division – in another season two may have gone up – and while obviously a disappointment, chairman Graham Roberts insists: “We go again.”

The club knew that just the champions would get promotion last time out with Roberts adding: “It depends on the pyramid above us, sometimes two teams go up, sometimes one.

“We lost a few games we should have won, we missed a couple of crucial penalties.”

Saracens have been outside the Hellenic League’s flagship division for around six years now – ironically they could have gone up a couple of years ago when they finished second but declined the opportunity because the team was breaking up following the departure of the club’s then management duo.

“It’s very important that we get back into the Premier Division,” continued Roberts, “it’s where we want to be, it’s a bigger league and a tougher challenge. Promotion is the only onwards progression.”

Masterminding what the club hope will be a very successful season are joint managers Ryan Betteridge and Stuart Mitchinson. Both men are Saracens through and through having played for the club for many years.

These days they are just concentrating on managing the team but while the success of the first team is all important there is much, much more to a club that have been going since 1964.

They will be running two teams in the Cheltenham League this season and it will be the first time that they have run a third team for a good number of years.

They will also be running youth teams at various age group levels – under-9s, two at under-11s and one at under-16s – so clearly the club are in pretty good health.

Roberts is in his third year as chairman and the 41-year-old is available to play for both the reserves and the 3rds this season.

Ask him what position he’ll play and he says with a laugh: “Probably sub! I played eight or nine games in goal for the reserves last season after our goalkeeper got injured. I like to think I’m a striker but talk to most people and they’ll tell you I’m a centre-back!

“I’ll play wherever I’m needed.”

The former Arle School pupil first started playing for Saracens at the age of 16 – “I started as soon as I could,” he explained – having started with Cheltenham YMCA’s under-11s.

“I had a few years playing at Cheltenham Civil Service and I came back to the club about eight years ago,” said Roberts.

The club are a big part of his life. Ask him what he’d be doing on a Saturday afternoon if it wasn’t for football and he says with a laugh: “Probably divorced!”

Happily that is not the case and Roberts’ wife Zoe is a big supporter of all things Cheltenham Saracens.

“She helps out a lot with the food and she does a lot on the admin side,” added Roberts. “She really does support me, she’s a massive help, I couldn’t do it without her.”

And they are likely to be involved with the club for a good number of years yet because their son Jason is showing some promise as a footballer.

“We live in Tewkesbury and he’ll be playing for Tewkesbury Town Under-12s this season,” said his proud dad. “I manage the team but as soon as he’s old enough I want to get him down to Cheltenham Saracens.”

What with managing his son’s team as well, Roberts senior is clearly full-on with his football come the weekend, and one of the things he takes great pride in is seeing youngsters develop as players.

“We get an awful lot of young players come through the door, some of whom go on to bigger clubs,” he said. “It’s great to see them go on and play at a better standard, we’d never stand in their way.

“The most famous player we’ve had is Steve Cotterill and I think Martin Devaney played a few games for us as well.”