ENGLISH Bicknor's footballers know all about high hopes. For two seasons the club has flirted with progressing to the Northern Senior League but on both occasions fallen short. So now there has been a policy change.

"This season we will take things as they come," says manager Darren Gwilliam. "We will see where we are at Christmas by which time we will have played all the other teams at least once. Then we can assess our chances."

Gwilliam says Bicknor enjoy the necessary assets – a large pitch and good changing quarters, plus a strong Second X1.

"They are catching us up. They have had two successive promotions and now play in North Gloucester League 2 where they are unbeaten this season. We also have a youth side so for a village club we are doing really well," he said.

But there are snags. The first team squad is comparatively small with around 14 players and can be severely tested by injuries and work commitments.

"We lost our first couple of games because players were unavailable but we have made good progress with three wins and a good cup result when we lost out on penalties," said Gwilliam.

Among the in-form players are George Selwyn-James and brothers James and Liam Davies while Simon Gwilliam has also scored freely.

Gwilliams figured strongly in Saturday's good performance against Forest rivals, Bream.

The visitors had scored first but Bicknor responded strongly with manager Darren Gwilliam – against, he says, his better judgement – pulling on his boots to head in the equaliser.

Brother Rob hit a rasping second goal with a strike from 20 yards and the match was made safe when Bream conceded an own goal.