IT was easy for well known Forest footballer Chris Addis to decide his future was at Ellwood. The club, he says, has ambitions to match his own.

Seeing off league leaders Tuffley Rovers on Saturday was a highly satisfactory result for Addis. At just 28 he is the youngest player-manager in the league and putting away Tuffley was all he wanted to make sure his players are up to the mark for the remainder of the season.

The Foresters have two games in hand on Tuffley and if they can win them both they will be just one point adrift of the Gloucester club.

Addis makes no bones about wanting to win the league. If that happens, he says, it would be up to others to decide whether or not they take promotion and the extra costs and facilities that would entail.

He explained: " For a start it means providing floodlights and there are other facilities and costs as well. It is not a decision to be taken lightly but I know the club is ambitious, just as I am."

Addis took charge last season and has coaxed others who think like him to join the club.

"We were pretty much bumping along the bottom, but now I have a squad of ambitious players who want to compete at a higher level. There's everything in place at Ellwood. The ground and facilities are excellent and I like to think we can really achieve something special here," he says.

With the option of selecting from 15 or 16 players every week, Ellwood have made great strides this season.

"It was always going to be a test against Tuffley. But we played some pretty decent football and even overcame out usual slow start. We began at a quick tempo and though we were a goal down at half-time we played even better in the second-half. Jamie Addis levelled the score on 50 minutes and Matt Addis scored the winner with five minutes to go," he said.

"We've come a long way in a short time. I'm enjoying the challenge of being player-manager. It presents obvious problems because I am friends with all the players but what goes on during a game is forgotten when we are having a pint afterwards," he said.