within reach of wiping out all of the historical debts. To add to the upturn, on the field Burns' young team upset a lot of the more fancied challengers and reached the quarter finals of the FA Trophy. The run included memorable victories away at league leaders Merthyr Tydfil, then two wins at Conference sides Woking and Southport. Aylesbury United of the Isthmian League proved to be too big of a challenge, however, and City bowed out. In the league, a fifth-placed finish was a remarkable achievement. The 2003–04 season saw further progress with the Tigers finishing second in the Western Division and gaining promotion to the Premier Division. At the end of the season, Colin Gardner stepped down as the highly respected chairman. Chris Burns resigned as manager in January 2006, Neil Mustoe took over as caretaker-manager until the permanent appointment of Tim Harris from Merthyr Tydfil was made. Flooding, promotion and exile In July 2007, Gloucester City's home, Meadow Park, was affected by the Gloucestershire flooding that engulfed the county. The club was hit with almost of water, almost submerging the crossbar. An astonishing picture, featured in The Sun, on Sky News and on the BBC, shot the club to national attention both in the media and among football supporters across the country. It caused many of the club's supporters to start a donation fund to help the club. The club's first season in exile was at Forest Green Rovers New Lawn Stadium, despite the loss of a stadium and revenue stream the club finished a creditable 6th in the league, just outside the Playoffs. The club's second season in exile at Cirencester Town proved to be one of the greatest in its history. The club finished 3rd in the Southern Premier League thus qualifying for the Playoffs. In the Southern League Playoff semi-final Cambridge City were beaten 3–1 at the Corinium Stadium. They went on to play Farnborough in the final at Cherrywood Road and won 1–0 with Matt Rose scoring the crucial goal, ending a 70-year continuous association with the Southern Football League, and gaining promotion to Conference Football for the first time. A quite remarkable achievement considering the club's predicament. In a controversial decision, the F.A. placed Gloucester City in the Conference North for the 2009–10 season. The reason given was that Worcester City, despite being considerably further north than both Gloucester and Cirencester, was