This is the first of two massive home games for us, with Lowestoft our visitors on our Community Day on 18th April. The results of these two home games will go a long way to determining which level we are playing at next year. To quote an old Beach Boys song, wouldn't it be nice, if we could get a win double! If I get around to it, I may throw another Beach Boys song title into your preview...

Our Last Meeting

We have met the Beachboys twice this season, both at their Aspect Arena. On both occasions the score was 3-1, but with one win each. In the league game, way back on 13th September, Blues took the lead on 15 minutes through Oscar Shelvey, before Concord turned the game around with a brace from Bobby Kelman. Before half time, Sid Walker was penalised and Kelman dispatched the resultant spot kick. After half time, a slip from Lewis Clark allowed Kelman in for the second. Blues never looked likely to equalise and Khris Oti wrapped up the win in injury time. Casey Nolan-Samuel's picked up a bad ankle injury to add more woe to a very disappointing day for The Blues.

Just 10 days later we were back for a first round League Cup tie. The Beachboys made the perfect start with Harrison Day scoring very early, but this time it was The Blues who made a successful comeback, with goals from Lewis Clark, Joe Paxman and Jayden Silcott-Brown.

Head to Head Record

Until last season, we had never met Concord in the league, with our previous games all played in the Essex Senior Cup. Last year we did the double over Concord and so, following the game this term, in league games the H2H is P3 W2 L1. If we add in Cup games we get an overall record of P10 W6 D1 L3. Having said that, that draw ended with Concord winning on penalties and one of our wins saw us subsequently removed from the Essex Senior Cup for an infringement of the rules so Concord might want to argue that the record is actually P10 W5 D0 L5.

Concord's Manager

Sammy Collins is the man in the dugout and is close to completing 3 seasons in charge. Sammy is assisted by Nathan Church and Drew Kilner.

Beachboys Season So Far

After a disappointing 16th place finish, on their return to Step 4, last season, Concord have enjoyed a better campaign this time around and visit us in 11th place with 56 points from 39 games. They will be less happy with their results in cup competitions, losing at the first hurdle in the FA Cup, FA Trophy and Essex Senior Cup along with the League Cup loss to The Blues.

Players In/Out

Since our last meeting, rising star Bobby Kelman left The Beachboys to join National South challengers, AFC Hornchuch. Goalkeeper Jacob Marsden moved the short distance across the Island to Canvey and Ricky Modeste joined Essex Senior League Barking. Heading to The Aspect Arena was long serving Tilbury midfielder, Oli Spooner and well travelled centre forward, Joe Gregory who had been at Walrhamstow.

Leading Scorers

Concord's leading marksmen this term are Stephen Toussaint with 17 goals (15 in ILN), Khris Oti with 13 (13) and Harrison Day with 11 (10). Bobby Kelman also bagged 11 all in the league before his move to Hornchurch.

Recent Form

In their last 6 games, Concord have W1 D1 L4 with 4 goals for and 15 goals against.
Specifically in their last 6 away games they have W1 D1 L4 with 4 goals for and 11 against.
For Grays, our last 6 games have resulted in W2 D0 L4 with 4 goals for and 7 against.
In our last 6 home games we have W3 D0 L3 with 5 goals for and 5 against.

Last Time Out

Concord came into Bank Holiday Monday's derby with Bowers and Pitsea on the back of two heavy defeats, but steadied the ship with a point. They took a first half lead through top scorer Stephen Toussaint's penalty. Bowers came back in the second half through a screamer from George Scales.

For Blues, it was a narrow 1-0 defeat to our landlord's and local rivals, Tilbury. It was a strange derby game with no real fireworks on the pitch. George Marsh barely had a save to make, thanks to good work from the defence in front of him. Ironically, Tilbury's goal came from a Blues attacking throw in which failed to beat the first defender and was cleared up to Tyler Forbes and his quality cross put it on a plate for Issa Sidibe who scored with his first touch since coming on as a substitute.

Tilbury had their goalkeeper, Billy Lawlor to thank for two fine saves, but even he could not stop Jordan Clark's volley which hit the underside of the crossbar, but did not cross the line. It was another one of those days where we deserved a lot more, but failed to find a goal.

There was a late cameo from Assistant Manager, Mitch Hahn, making his first appearance for The Blues since the Stan Venness game in July 2023. Although only on the pitch for 5 minutes, Mitch showed a glimpse of the quality we had been missing, with a great cross that so nearly led to the equaliser for Guy Norton.

Other Games Today

Looking at the teams around us; Takeley on 44 points travel to Stanway Rovers, Mildenhall on 41 points go to Maldon and Tiptree, Lowestoft on 40 points host relegated Heybridge Swifts, (who started preparations for next season by replacing manager Jason Maher with former Bowers manager, Luke Wilson) and Downham Town on 35 points host Brightlingsea Regent. If Downham don't win today, they are relying on other results to stay in the fight.

Final Games

Concord's season finishes with a big home game against Felixstowe and Walton and then on the last day, a short trip to Redbridge.
For Blues, after our home game against Lowestoft, we end our campaign with a tough game, away, at play off chasing Gorleston.

Summary

The Beachboys are safe and are playing for pride alone. The motivation for The Blues is much greater, but can we score the goals we need? We have failed to score in 18 of our 39 league games this season. Only Brantham have a worse record than that this term.

What we would give now for back to back wins over Concord and Lowestoft. Given our really poor record in away league games, we do not want to be going to Gorleston needing a point or more.

Your support against Tilbury was superb, making all the noise, even when Tilbury had their best spell in the second half. All we can do as supporters is to keep going, stay loud and proud and keep it positive; it still could make all the difference to our final position.

We look forward to seeing you on Saturday. Come on You G's!