On Wednesday 7th October, Grays welcome Hashtag United to the EMR Stadium for an Isthmian North fixture. Kick off is at 7.45pm.

Hashtag have certainly made an impact in the world of non league football since their formation in 2016 as a team playing exhibition matches and engaging with a growing online community. They played their first game as a senior football club in the Eastern Counties League Division 1 as recently as 2018. Since then, they have progressed through the Essex Senior League to Isthmian North and in their second season at Step 4, were Champions with 98 points.

The Tags then spent 3 seasons at Step 3 with finishes in 13th and then 8th place, before last season's relegation. The club made a statement in March that it would want to be re-allocated to Step 4 at the end of the campaign irrespective of where they finished in the league, due to financial pressures. As it happened, they finished in the bottom 4 anyway.

Head to Head

We had two seasons together with contrasting results. Grays did the double in The Tags debut season, but they gained revenge in their Championship campaign doing the double over us. The last meeting was a league cup fixture won easily by The Tags 6-1.

Therefore the head to head from our perspective is P5 W2 L3 GF 6 GA13 with all 5 games played at Parkside, Aveley, as we were both tenants of the Millers at the time.

In The Dugout

Hashtag's first manager as a senior club was Jay Devereux who did an incredible job in taking them from Step 6 to Step 3 in just 6 years. Jay stepped down at the end of last season but remains with the club as Director of Football.

His replacement was their coach last season, Sammy Knott, who in his playing days, was a defender for teams such as East Thurrock, Concord Rangers, Tonbridge Angels and Waltham Abbey before joining Canvey Island and going on to be Assistant Manager there, helping them to promotion to the Isthmian Premier.

Close Season

Many of us wondered if Hashtag were going to have a transition season, stabilising themselves back in Step 4 and looking to balance the books. They also moved their base from Parkside to Redbridge's Techsoc stadium.

A number of experienced players moved on in close season; Jack Giddens, Nathan Smith, Max Cornhill, Jermaine Anderson, Josh Rusoke, Romel Aarons Royal and Jaxon Brown.

They did, however, retain the services of Jason Ring, Nathan Wilson, Bilal Sayoud, Ben Wells, Thomas Anderson, Praise Ogbebor, Matt Wooldridge, Sam Park and Ellis Devereux.

They brought back Misha Djemaili from Chichester City, Harrison Day from Concord Rangers and Joe Debell from Stanway Rovers. New through the door were Joe Whitney and Freddie Buers from Bowers, Jaden Crowhurst from Sittingbourne and Nathan Koranteng from Waltham Abbey.

Early Season Form

With a strong squad like that, it was a question of how quickly they would gel; well the answer was immediately! In the league they won their first 5 games scoring an astonishing 18 goals and conceding just the one. Since then things have slowed a bit with two draws away at Felixstowe and Walton and home to Wroxham. Between this was a home loss 1-2 to Walthamstow. They did return to winning ways in their most recent game, (see below).

They visit us on top of the league table with 20 points from 9 games played.

In the F.A.Cup, they turned on the style at home to Enfield, giving them a proper shellacking, 10-1. This gave them an away tie at St Albans City and in front of a 1000 spectators they drew 0-0. However, the replay, back at Redbridge, was lost, 0-2.

They are still going in the F.A.Trophy, following wins over Royston Town, Hertford Town and a fantastic victory at Brentwood Town, on penalties after a 3-3 draw. In the first round proper they face a visit to the Channel Coast to take on Deal Town (Deal or no Deal; bet that's a box to box game!)

In total The Tags have scored a very impressive 44 goals in 15 games played so far. Ellis Devereux leads the way with 10 (7 in the league), with Misha Djemaili scoring 7 (4 in the league) and Sam Park 6 (3 in the league).

Playing Links

I found 8 players who have played for both clubs, including the likes of Sam Bantick, Anthony Page, Josh Osude and Joe Paxman. There is one current Grays player who has played for The Tags; Ryan Sammons who made a handful of appearances for them in 2023/24.

Last Time Out

The Tags had a Central Line derby game with newly promoted Buckhurst Hill, and got back to winning ways 4-1. They took the lead through a Misha Djemaili penalty but The Stags were level in the second half courtesy of Max Gnandi. The Tags finished strongly and retook the lead on 81 minutes through Bilal Sayoud, his 4th league goal of the season. The points were secured in injury time with two more goals both scored by Ellis Devereux.

The Blues headed up the M11 to take on The Jockeys of Newmarket Town and were outclassed in the first 45 minutes. It was a perfect storm of Newmarket playing bright, intelligent football, The Blues being well off the pace, making numerous mistakes, and a referee who had a troubled afternoon. Elliott Reeves opened the scoring before a really harsh handball decision was given, (only after vociferous Newmarket protests), and was dispatched by Ryan Cole. It was soon three with Reeves again the scorer, making it 5 goals in his 3 games for The Jockeys.

The second half saw The Blues best spell, as they showed the intensity absent in the first 45. Gabriel Chapps hit the post and was denied a penalty which probably would have been given at the other end. The Jockeys added a 4th through the outstanding Taylan Kilinc and could have had more but for Mackenzie Drew's efforts in goal. When you lose 4-0 and your goalkeeper is your man of the match, you know it's been a bad day at the office. One bright note was seeing Brandon Adams come on for the last 20 minutes, his debut, following a long period out due to injury.

Summary

Hashtag are league leaders and have been scoring for fun in most of their games this term. They have won 6 of their 9 league games and all of them by a margin of 3 goals or more.

In contrast, it looks grim for Grays; one win in the league since the opening Saturday is a pretty miserable return. The last 4 games have all been lost and by an aggregate of 10-1. However, more than that, it was the manner of the defeat at Newmarket that was the most depressing.

However, as bad as it is, we must not lose our self belief. There is no better way to start to turn this round than upsetting the team at the very top of the league. I can think of plenty of Grays sides in the past that would be relishing the opportunity to play the league leaders and to upset the formbook. At the very least on Wednesday evening, we need to see a performance worthy of the shirt.

More than ever, we need you to come to the game and give the team your support. It's easy when things are going well, but the real supporters turn up and get behind their team when they need it the most.

COYB!