Quedgeley Wanderers head to Ruardean Hill Rangers at the weekend looking to build on their good start to the new year.

They defeated Broadwell Amateurs 4-1 at home on Saturday – the only game that has been played in the County League in 2026 – to cement their position in fourth place in the 17-team division.

Two goals by Henry Miles and one apiece from Finlay Jenner and Dylan Venn, a penalty, secured the points against a side who they had beaten 2-1 on the opening day of the season.

They are level on points with third-placed Filton Athletic, and director of football Tony Hawkins said: “We’re looking to finish in the top five this season and then looking to get promotion in the years to come.”

Hawkins is also assistant boss to Beckem Foley, who took over as manager ahead of the new campaign.

Foley was previously first-team coach and under-18s manager at Cheltenham Saracens and Hawkins said: “We’ve got a very young team, the average age is in the early 20s.

“The gaffer has brought quite a few young players with him, they’ve taken to the league like a duck to water.

“The Hellenic League is where we want to be. We’ve got a three-year plan to get there and everything is moving in the right direction.”

Their three goalscorers on Saturday are all players with bright futures at the club.

“They are all young players,” continued Hawkins. “Henry is 19 and he’s at university at Liverpool so he can’t play every game, but he’s a very, very special player.”

Quedgeley finished 14^th of 16 last season but they are certainly thriving this time around.

They set up in a 4-3-3 formation, and Hawkins said: “We play attacking football. We play with a 4 in the middle and the 8 and 10 have licence to roam.

“Up front, we play with two wide and one through the middle. Our philosophy is that you don’t win games if you don’t score goals and with our firepower we expect to score goals.”

They’ve scored 29 in their 14 league games so far and Hawkins, who was caretaker-boss for the last 10 games of the 2024/25 season after becoming assistant manager in November, is looking to the future with optimism.

“Hopefully we’ll be setting up a men’s 3^rd team and a women’s team,” he said. “We’ve already got more than 35 youth teams.”

Quedgeley’s next home game after travelling to Ruardean Hill on Saturday is against Totterdown United on Saturday 17^th January. They then travel to Hanham Athletic and Cribbs before the end of the month.

Their next four fixtures are against teams who are all currently in the bottom four.