CHELTENHAM head into their local derby at Old Patesians tomorrow with survival their main target for the season.

The Prince of Wales Stadium side finally won promotion back to National Three South West and in an ironic twist of fate they face their town rivals in the first fixture.

However, head coach Liam Middleton knows the sides that have come up have a poor record of staying in the division, but he hopes to break the mould.

"As we know, the history shows that the teams that have come into the season have gone straight back down at the first time of asking, so our goal is not to be one of those teams," said Middleton.

"I know a lot has been made of the local derby, but from our perspective we are just looking forward to the season starting and we have goals to achieve and we are not going to achieve them in the first game.

"It is going to be tough because there is a lot of competition. As coaches, our focus is on performance and not the outcome. We are not going to throw the baby out with the bath water if we lose."

As well as Cheltenham, county rivals Hartpury College have also come up, making it four Gloucestershire teams in the division along with Coney Hill.

But Middleton is looking forward to locking horns with Pats, who finished second last year.

"With us coming up with Hartpury College, I would expect them to be challenging at the top of the league, but from our point of view our goal is not to go down," Middleton added.

"It is a great way to start the first game against a side from the top of the league – that is exactly what we wanted.

"If you look at our first five games, we play five out of the top six sides from last year, so we are not going to be safe after the first five games. That is going to come in March or April.

"We are missing a couple of players this week. We will probably be back to full strength next week."