Good evening and welcome to Warren Evans, the staff, players, officials & supporters of Tuffley Rovers for this Uhlsport Hellenic League fixture. We hope you enjoy our hospitality and have a safe journey back home after the game.

Despite losing Cheltenham Saracens from the Hellenic Premier, there has been a shift to the west as the three new additions, namely tonight’s opponents, Tuffley Rovers, Lydney Town and Longlevens AFC are all Gloucestershire based and will provide a welcome change to the M4 corridor we have become used to travelling along for our away fixtures.

We have also lost Shrivenham, Newbury, Reading Town and Holyport but kept Flackwell Heath following some odd decisions by the Southern League. We also welcome back Wokingham & Emmbrook and Brackley Town in the form of the Saints to complete the 20 sides making up this season’s Premier contenders.

Wootton Bassett have had a name change to Royal Wootton Bassett to reflect the honour bestowed on the Town and a venue change from Cirencester to their newly built headquarters on the outskirts of the town.

Of the new boys, only the Brackley Town Saints got off the mark on the opening day of the season last Saturday, drawing with Wootton Bassett to register their first point in the Hellenic Premier.

Tonight’s opponents, Gloucester based Tuffley Rovers are no strangers to the Premier Division having been a regular feature up to 2005 when they decided to re-group in the Gloucester League.

Their first outing back in the Premier, saw them take the lead against Ascot United at Glevum Park but they must be gutted after succumbing to a winning strike in added time at the end of the contest.

We played exceptionally well to take the points off Bracknell Town at Larges Lane on Saturday and I am hoping that we can build on this tonight at the Elms. No doubt the Rovers will be smarting from their opening reverse and they will be looking to put this right themselves.

I am expecting a tough encounter with the new boys but we have the squad to produce the results and I am hoping for a solid start to the season by laying down a decent sequence of results and showing our credentials as contenders for the league title.

Next Saturday we face Knaphill of the Combined Counties League in the Extra Preliminary Round of the FA Cup and then we have another tough home league match the following Tuesday against Thame United if there is no replay.

Let’s all look forward to a good season and above all, a good league campaign with maybe the odd extended run in a cup or two!

Thanks for your continued support and see you in the bar later!

Fish