“We’re going to do absolutely everything we can to get this football club promoted” Williams issues rallying cry ahead of Gloucester City’s season opener

Gloucester City Manager Daf Williams has called for the City supporters to continue to get behind their team whilst reiterating the seasons’ objective is to achieve promotion.

City have lost in the Southern League Premier South play-off final in consecutive seasons and will be looking to go one better and securing their return to the National League North/South, in what is set to be another tough division this season.

Saturday’s curtain raiser at home to Chertsey Town gives the Tigers a chance to their season off to a flyer in front of their home support and speaking on Saturday’s Buttee’s For Breakfast show Williams has called on the supporters to get behind the squad and believes together the club are capable of success this time around.

“The supporters last year were unbelievable. They were unbelievable and I’m so proud and so privileged and honoured to represent this football club as a Manager because of them,” said Williams.

“You know, you see all the same faces at home, you see all the same faces away and like I said last year, about this football club and these supporters, I feel like there’s a bit of a black cloud hovvering above us all because of recent years – relegation, missing playoffs. on two occasions, missing the playoffs the year before the relegation in the North.

But let’s rally together, let’s get together and let’s stick together in the bad times, because there are going to be times in the season where we’re suffering and we’ve got to be really resilient to bounce back and overcome that, but together, one million percent, it sounds cliché, we can achieve more.

So back the lads, get behind them every step of the way and hopefully we can finally bring a little bit of success to this fantastic football club and the fantastic people that follow it,” Williams added.

Ahead of the season’s kick off, City find themselves the current bookies favourite to win the league title, adding to the already existing pressure of being beaten play-off finalists two years in a row – but Williams welcomes the pressure as it can benefit his side in what is set to be a competitive league.

“I think it’s important that we play under pressure. I think we have to be a bit more aggressive in our approach in terms of what we want to do and what we want to achieve,” Williams said.

“The one thing that we have to make clear is that we’re not the only team that has those objectives and I can quite easily say there’ll be three or four teams in the league that are going to be standing here 24 hours before kick-off, saying that their objective is to get promoted.

And then, you know, with the change in the format, with the two extra playoff places, you can see those teams that maybe were flirting with play-offs last year or mid-table last year, they’ve been really aggressive in their recruitment – so they’re fancying the chances a little bit, so it’s going to be a really competitive league.

It’s going to be really, really tough, but yeah, like for us, we want to be aggressive in terms of our approach and say ‘we want to get promoted’ and with that comes pressure, absolutely, but we’ve got to thrive under that. We’ve got to relish that,” added Williams.

Three months on from the defeat at Farnham Town and City fans will expect the club to finally get over the line in their bid to get back to the National League – with some fans online questioning whether being in the play-offs again would still be a positive thing, whilst some have said it is title or bust for the Tigers and Williams admits that for him it doesn’t matter how they get there, but seeing his side promoted is the core objective for the 2026/27 season.

“[Being promoted] that was the aim from day one last year, but we were a little bit more reserved in terms of making that a clear objective. We had certain small targets which we’ll do again, but I think we’ve got to be a bit more aggressive in our approach this year in terms of whether we want to get promoted,” said Williams.

“Whether that be through the playoffs or whether that be automatic, that is going to be the aim – but obviously with the previous two seasons that we’ve had, we’d love nothing more than to avoid the playoffs.

Like I said, there’s going to be other teams that are striving for the same thing. There’s some real competitive sides, competitive budgets in the league this year., so it’s going to be really, really tough, make no bones about it, but we’re going to do absolutely everything we can to get this football club promoted,” Williams added.

Listen to the full interview with Williams previewing the season ahead on Buttee’s For Breakfast on Saturday morning, live from 9am

Gloucester City start their 2026/27 Southern League Premier South season at home to Chertsey Town on Saturday afternoon; kick off 15:00

Cover photo taken and copyright Jamie Brain Photography. Visit his Instagram @jamiebrain_photography