CHIPPING Sodbury’s new head coach Harvey Skelton believes his side can win the Gloucester Premier League this season.

The new man in charge is targeting the title and oversaw his team’s first win on the soil of neighbours St Mary’s Old Boys last weekend by 20-14 as they made it two wins out of two so far.

Skelton has a healthy squad in terms of numbers, and is going to switch things around this weekend when they travel to Cirencester in the National Senior Vase Gloucestershire quarter-finals.

But the following week, they will face another big league clash when they have a second v third clash at home to Barton Hill, who are a point ahead of Sodbury in the table at present.

Skelton has been impressed with the way the players have moulded together during the summer since he came on board with assistant Matt Dew.

The head coach said: “The first thing for me and the assistant coming here is to say they are a great bunch of boys and socially they are good. For us, it is about fine tuning those little bits that need working on.

“Last season in their game, they failed to get over the last hurdle. To come away from home and put away a second win of the season was brilliant. It just shows the character of the boys.”

Sodbury won their first match of the season by 15-7 at home to Spartans and, after the St Mary’s victory, Skelton is optimistic about their prospects for the future.

“We are here to do a job and win the league, ultimately. We finished fourth last season which was unlucky, and the way we have started is fantastic. It is about keeping that consistency going through the rest of the season.

“We are here to set our stall out and push forward up through the leagues.”

Skelton and Dew have worked together before at Old Redcliffians in National League Two South, and Dew will be working mainly with the pack.

“He has focussed on the line-outs and changed a few areas in that department,” added the head coach. “We have a good relationship, with a bit of banter off the pitch, so it is great.

“For us, it is about getting a bit of respect from everyone and stamping our mark on what we believe we can do this year and it is really positive.”

As for Saturday’s Vase match, Skelton said: “It’s a tough game but we may look to rest a few boys going into the following league game. We have Barton Hill after that which will probably be the same as the Spartans match, so we will make sure the boys are up for that.”