STOKE Gabriel & Torbay Police have lofty ambitions in the South West Peninsula League with manager Sam Biscoe affirming that they’re “in the running for the title.”

The two most talked about teams in the division are runaway leaders Bovey Tracey AFC and Bridport FC with Newton Abbot Spurs and Cullompton Rangers the next to enter the conversation but Stoke have seemingly slipped under the radar.

Going about their business quietly and collecting some great results, the Bees are on Bridport’s coattails and trail Bovey by eight points at the time of writing with home and away clashes against the latter still to come.

Biscoe, who is one half of the management team at Broadley Lane alongside former Bovey man Matt Hayden, told the South Ham Gazette that: “We’re on track for where we want to be, we set ourselves a very strong goal which we’re on target to achieve.”

The goal in question is “to stay in the challenge” and they are certainly doing that.

He added, “We’re headed in the right direction and hopefully this year will be a strong year, but if it’s not meant to be, hopefully next year we’ll be fighting for the league title again.”

Like many other managers at this level, Biscoe and Hayden “knew Bovey were going to be strong due to their finances and the players they’ve had come in.”

Biscoe spoke very highly of their title rivals: “What has been somewhat surprising is that they’ve managed to keep a good group of lads quite happy, that’s probably the hardest part when you’ve got players sitting on the bench that should be playing, I think Ben has managed that really well.

“They’re a really strong team but we have got a plan to be able to surprise Bovey which we’re looking forward to.”

They will first visit the Moorlanders at the Western Counties Roofing Ground on Boxing Day before they then welcome them to Stoke Gabriel on the final day of the season, in early April.

Stoke wouldn’t be where they are now if their attentions were on those around them though and so it would be remiss to not give Biscoe and Hayden their flowers for the job they’ve done to date.

Prior to this weekend’s action, Stoke Gabriel have won nine of their 13 league outings, drawing two and losing two.

Both of those defeats came against South Devon sides, the first of which was in Newton Abbot.

On this, Biscoe commented, “Newton Spurs away was a really difficult evening for us”, pointing to Spurs’ underwhelming performance against Bovey the week prior, two outings which were chalk and cheese for Connor Marshall’s men in truth.

The scoreline was 2-1 in their defeat at The Rec and this was repeated seven days later when Teignmouth AFC were their guests at Broadley Lane.

Beyond this pair of losses, Stoke Gabriel have been mightily impressive, scoring 10 goals in their opening two games and then 29 in their last six in all competitions.

Their form in front of goal has been a real source of pride for Biscoe but there is far more to the strong run than that. “We’ve scored plenty of goals which is nice and we also look very defensively strong, so it’s a very positive start all around.”

One game that Biscoe highlighted was actually a defeat, but one with a plethora of positives.

The 4-3 loss away at Plymouth Parkway last month in the St Luke’s Challenge Cup “was a really good experience for the lads and for us.”

He continued, “We learned a lot about ourselves in that one, how to go in with a low block, in step six we don’t really have to worry about the low block and holding our shape as much because we’ve got the quality individually, we’re one of the better teams.

“When we played Parkway though, we had to be organised, had to learn how to shuffle across and hold your shape, the wingers had to tuck in because they wanted to play a slide ball in between them and the fullbacks.

“In the second half, we learned how to block that and we actually won the second half 2-1 so fair play to the lads for that.”

On the topic of cup competitions, Stoke’s controversial exit from the FA Vase was a well-documented one and it was a bitter pill to swallow.

Having “absolutely battered” Helston Athletic on home soil, they fell victim of an international clearance law and so the tie was replayed but south of the border this time.

To make matters worse, Stoke “weren’t originally supposed to have a game that weekend so a lot of people made plans to go away. We had to travel down to Cornwall with, I think, four of five under-18s, so it was quite a tough trip for them.”

They were beaten 4-1 at Kellaway Park and so the Vase journey for Stoke was cut short in “heartbreaking” circumstances.

Rather than letting this derail their season, the South Hams side responded really well, beating Ilminster Town 6-0 the following weekend in the WCP League Cup. They will face Torridgeside AFC at home in the next round of that competition, on Saturday, December 20.

Since the impressive Ilminster victory, Stoke put in that spirited Parkway performance and have won all four league games.

Bridport were supposed to come to town last weekend and Stoke were fancying their chances, on a great run of form, only for inclement weather to force a postponement.

Big games continue to roll their way though as they visit fourth-placed Cullompton Rangers at Adopstar Park tomorrow (Sat 29) amongst what Biscoe labelled as a “huge few weeks.”

Victory would take them four points clear of Cully and make it six league successes on the spin for this imperious Stoke outfit.