Not long after he joined us in November 2000, a colleague on the Board christened him “90 mile an hour Micky”. His determination to push the Club on as quickly as possible was obvious to all. From a position of almost certain relegation, he completed an amazing transformation. Within two weeks of his appointment to the Board as “Director of Football” he had released 17 of our 19 man squad and replaced them with a generally young squad of players who had failed to make an impact at Football League level, but who were keen to show that they still had what it took to be winners.
During the second half of that season, we comfortably avoided relegation, finishing a more than creditable 15th. Craig Edwards had been appointed manager and we moved into season 2001/02 with a more confident approach. We finished sixth in the Ryman Premier League and won a place in the first round of the F. A. Cup for the second year running, something we had never previously achieved. The introduction of a reserve team brought further success in the shape of the Capital League title, which had not been won by a team outside the Conference for 17 years, and runners up in the League Cup.

2002/03 was a difficult season on the pitch. A series of high profile pre-season signings failed to shine and Craig Edwards was replaced by player, Mark Stimson. Grays struggled for the rest of the season and narrowly avoided relegation.
2003/04 was much more positive. The Club had announced its inten- tion to go full-time and manager Mark Stimson, with coach Scott Barrett, hosted a series of trials and recruited a number of talented and motivated young players. We notched up convincing victories, including a 9-1 demolition of St Albans City, who were being managed for the first time by a former Grays player, Steve Castle. A narrow F. A. Cup defeat at home to Aldershot and a sixth place League finish provided a signal of the success to come with star striker, Freddy Eastwood
netting 37 goals.

2004/05 proved to be our most successful so
far. We won the newly-inaugurated Nationwide Conference South scoring 118 goals in the process. But more excitement was to follow in the F. A. Trophy. Having claimed the scalp of Exeter City just a week after the Grecians had played Manchester United twice in the F. A. Cup, with an impressive display of attacking football, we then demolished another Conference team, Burton Albion, 7-0 on aggregate in the semi-final. A final tie in front of over 8,000 fans against Conference North, Hucknall Town at Villa Park, went to extra time and penalties where goalkeeper, Ashley Bayes, was the hero saving Russell Cooke’s penalty to claim the biggest knock-out prize in Non-League football. We have to date been the only Club outside the Conference to achieve this League and F. A. Trophy double.

2005/06 saw us leading the Conference during a record equalling unbeaten run of 15 games during August and September, only to be brought to a halt when under the eye of the TV cameras, we lost 2-1 at the newly named “New Recreation Ground” to the eventual champions, Accrington Stanley. Although our form slipped early in 2006, a fantastic end to the season saw us clinch third place and a two legged play-off against Halifax Town. The tie was probably settled during the first half an hour of the away leg, when we found ourselves three nil down. We recovered in the second half to finish the game at 3-2 down with all to play in the second leg front of the TV cameras at Grays. A pulsating game ebbed and flowed, but a controversial late penalty to Halifax proved decisive and the 2-2 draw was enough to deny us a crack at Hereford in the play-off final, a team we had beaten in both the League and F. A. Trophy earlier in the season.

There was still more good news to come that season. Despite being drawn against Conference sides in every round, we made it through to the final of the F. A. Trophy for the second year running. A game at Upton Park against Woking proved to be the highlight of all my years as a Grays supporter. We played open, attractive football in front of over 14,000 fans, the majority sporting our colours, and first half goals from Dennis Oli and Glenn Poole proved enough to give us the silverware again.
Just a couple of days later came the disappointing news that Mark Stimson and Scott Barrett were leaving the Club to pursue careers elsewhere. One always accepts that good people will look to better themselves and there is no doubt that Mark and Scott, with the resources made available by Mike Woodward, had produced a team that was widely regarded as one of thebest attacking sides ever seen at Conference level. I wouldn’t have missed those three successful seasons for the world and feel that all those years of struggle were worthwhile. We had some special players who moved on to better things. The contributions of Freddy Eastwood, Michael Kightly, Aaron McLean and Gary Hooper in particular had helped the Club to establish itself at the summit on Non League football.
Between May 2006 and April 2010, the Club struggled in the Conference. A succession of management changes did not help. Frank Gray replaced Stimson, but only lasted 18 games, when a loss to Bromley in the F.A. Cup, just a week after trouncing St Albans 6-1 away in the League, saw him lose his job – dismissed by Mike Woodward while he was away on board a cruise ship!
Andy King lasted just seven games and was replaced by Justin Edinburgh. He fared better with a 69 match reign, but Woodward decided to try management himself, with some success during a 28 match spell. Then former player, Wayne Burnett survived only 23 games and coach Gary Phillips kept us clear of relegation in 2009 with a 29 match reign. Craig Edwards re-joined us in the close season of 2009, but a 5-1 pre-season hammering at Bromley saw him leave before a competitive ball had been kicked.
Three others – player Jamie Stuart, Director of Football, Peter Shreeves and Tim O’Shea had just one game each at the helm – Stuart with an Essex Senior Cup win and O’Shea a league victory, could even boast 100% records!
Andy Swallow joined the Club in June 2009 taking over from Mike Woodward who stood down, to help us through the next critical stage for the Club. Former West Ham legend, Julian Dicks took over team management in September 2009, but could not stem the tide as the playing budget was severely reduced and the inevitable relegation from the Conference, combined with the loss of the Recreation Ground to developers, came in April 2010.
During those last four Conference seasons, we finished 19th, 10th, 19th again and finally in 2009/10, bottom of the League. As if losing our beloved Recreation Ground wasn’t bad enough, we then found ourselves on the wrong end of an FA Adminstrator’s quill pen, who had somehow connived to exclude us from the Football Pyramid!
Based on a resignation letter from the Club that sought a voluntary relegation from the Conference to the Ryman Premier Division, his interpretation, without any contact with the Club, was that we had ‘resigned from football’. It was a bizarre time and it took the level headedness of an F.A. appeal panel and Andy Swallow’s expert barrister to put the man in the blazer straight. That wasn’t quite the end of the matter, as the Ryman League were unhappy with the two-year groundshare agreement we had reached with East Thurrock and a compromise was eventually struck, placing us in Ryman Division One North just a few days before the start of pre-season training for 2010/11.

A modest 10th position in 2010/11 saw the Club relieve Julian Dicks of his job and seasoned Non League manager Hakan Hayrettin, was appointed in June 2011 to get us back to the position in the Pyramid we had planned in 2010. His first season saw us lose on penalties in a play-off semi-final, but in 2012/13 we lifted the title with an amazing run of victories, culminating in a 2-0 home win at our Rush Green home in April 2013 against our main rivals, Maldon & Tiptree.
We garnered a Club record of 102 points and lost just four times in the League.
I
n yet another twist, in June 2013 we lost our Rush Green home as West Ham reneged on our groundshare agreement. Without the help of Craig Johnson at Aveley F.C., the Directors of the Ryman League and most of the Clubs in the League, we could have, once again, been without a home and a league to play in. A deal was struck and the ground- share with Aveley was agreed for at least another two years.

The return to the Ryman Premier League for the 2013/14 season saw us requiring another new manager as Hakan had move on to join his good friend, John Still, as coach at Luton Town in the Conference, helping them to win that League and regain their place back in the Football League in his first season at Kenilworth Road.

Experienced player Ryan Kirby, who had been a tower of strength at centre-half in our title-winning team the year before, took over as player/manager to give continuity to the playing side and in spite of an horrendous fixture backlog which forced us to play 25 games in 66 days at the end of the season, we finished a creditable 14th in the League, to once again claim our rightful place as the premier team in Thurrock.
Work and personal commitments forced Ryan to leave us before the start of this season and Jody Brown joined us from Heybridge, with an impressive coaching background at professional youth level.

Unfortunately, the lure of the Conference struck again as he moved on to Welling in December last year, leaving us with a much-changed squad of players and the Club sitting in 15th in the League. (He has recently been released by Welling due to a lack of wins) Andy Swallow stepped into the breach as Caretaker Manager for a three match spell and player Mark Bentley became his assistant.

After one win and two defeats, Andy handed team management over to Mark, with his full support, while the Club were going through the process of choosing a new manager and awaiting a decision on the key planning issue at the Aveley Sports and Social Club ground which held the key to the Club’s return to Grays on a permanent basis.

The news on the Aveley housing development came through in January 2015 and it was not good. The Conservative/Lib Dem Coalition Government rejected our Labour controlled Thurrock Council’s approval to the plan – long live LOCAL democracy! With the Club now having to review its long- term future, Mark Bentley, after an impressive start to his management career was appointed as permanent manager until at least the end of this season.
As I complete this ‘magnum opus’ (well it may not be my greatest, but it’s certainly my longest piece of literary work!), I would like to mention some personal high- lights and a couple of lowlights over the last 56 years or so. The highlights could fill a book, but I’ll pick out seven:
In 1984 we beat Wealdstone 2-1 in the FA Cup after being a goal down at half time. So what was so special about that? Well, Wealdstone were in the Gola League, the equivalent of today’s Conference and we were in Division Two of the Isthmian League – three levels below them. They also won the double that year – Gola League and FA Trophy. This was in Micky Welch’s heyday and I well remember the celebrations that night! Another FA Cup win was in 1988 at Barnet. This was another Conference team who also went on to win the League that season and gain promotion to the Football League. We won 1-0 with a goal from Nicky Crown which silenced their crowd and their Chairman, a certain gentleman called Stan Flashman, who you may remember as an alleged ticket-tout. Strange but true – on the same day Nicky’s elder brother and former Blue, David, also scored the winner for Southend United in a 1-0 win.
In the same season, we won the Essex Senior Cup for the first time in 31 years beat- ing Leytonstone/Ilford 1-0 after extra time at Dagenham. This was the first trophy I’d seen us win after watching Grays for 30 years! A great player, Delroy Rhoden who had played for us when he was sixteen, had rejoined us and scored the decider. He was the oldest player on the pitch but his legs just about kept going to the end to help us lift the mag- nificent trophy. In 1989 we beat a strong Southend United side 3-2 in the final of the Essex Thameside Trophy at Roots Hall. The enjoyment for me was going to a big stadium, with a good pitch and coming back from 2-1 down with only a couple of minutes to go, winning the game and collecting that wonder- ful silver galleon trophy. Maverick Bailey, a late substitute in the game, scored our winner, much to my delight and also to that of my 16 year old son, who had come to the game with me and his friend, a Southend supporter who had been telling us throughout the game how his “Blues” were going to murder our “Blues”!

Also, the reaction in the Boardroom afterwards of the Southend Manager at the time, David Webb, who was gracious in defeat and lavish with his praise of our team.
I couldn’t finish this piece without reference to the Trophy win at Villa Park in May 2005. Pulsating stuff, with Johnny Martin putting us
ahead, only for the brave Hucknall team to take us to extra time and penalties. Seven great penalties by us and Bayso with a terrif- ic save from their seventh effort. What a day and what a night to follow!
As if it couldn’t get any better, we did it all over again in the FA Trophy the following sea- son with a memorable final at Upton Park in front of 14,000 supporters, the majority of whom were, at least for that afternoon, supporting Grays Athletic! Our display in a 2-0 victory against a good Woking side with whom we had drawn twice in the League that sea- son, will live in my memory forever.
Finally, in April 2013, near the end of a 21- match unbeaten run, we beat Maldon & Tiptree 2-0 to clinch the Ryman Division One North title in front of nearly 400 supporters. My son, who I had taken to Grays’ games from a very early age and was now nearly 40, joined me in some of the most emotional cel- ebrations I can remember in my time as a supporter. Thankfully, the lowlights are very few.

One of the worst moments was back in 1979 when I had a call at home from the Club’s Secretary to say there was a notice in the Thurrock Gazette announcing that the Charity Commissioners were offering the Rec for sale to the highest bidder. At least that turned out well when Mr Billings bought the ground and gave us security. The latest relocation news, which is only just sinking in, could become the ultimate lowlight – only time will tell on that. The only other lowlights for me would be match postponements when I miss my ‘football fix’ and ANY GAME WE LOSE ! Being cheerful in defeat has never been easy for me!

To complete my story, I would just like to relate another day in my life with the Club, which was neither a highlight nor a lowlight - just yet another interesting day following Grays Athletic. Back in the 1980’s we travelled down to Petersfield in Hampshire for a League game on a damp Saturday afternoon. We won the game 2-1, but more significantly our coach got stuck in the mud at the ground and it took until nearly midnight to get us out! I arrived home from the normal two hour trip at nearly two o’clock on the Sunday morning. I think it was at this point that my long suf- fering wife became convinced I was seeing another woman. Of course I wasn’t although I have to admit that I was, and still am, in love with this wonderful Football Club of ours! Come on you Blues!!
GLYN JARvIS
Supporter 1958 to 2015
vice-Chairman Grays Athletic F.C. Management Committee
– 1979 to 1982
Director Grays Athletic F.C. (1982) Limited – 1982 to 2001
Life President Grays Athletic F.C. – 2001 to 2015