The Grays Ath festive programme begins on Saturday with the visit of Walthamstow to Tilbury for the first in a rush of league games over the coming week or two.

Our two clubs have already met this season, in the Velocity League Cup in early September, when Blues visited Wadham Lodge and came away with the win courtesy of a penalty shoot out victory after a 1-1 draw - Ali Njie’s 97th minute goal cancelling out Luke Hirst’s early strike for Grays.

Walthamstow’s league campaign this season has been something of a mixed bag, with eight wins and eight losses (and note only two draws). After a sluggish start, their recent form has been much improved with recent goal fests against Newmarket and Ipswich Wanderers and last Saturday a 2-1 win at home to Sporting Bengal. Top scorer for Walthamstow so far this season is former Blue, Brian Moses-Songolo. We know what Brian can do when in form.

This all leaves our visitors 11th in the current league table with 26 points. However, our two sides currently sit 6th and 7th in the form table - so this promises to be a close encounter.

The corresponding fixture last year was one to forget for Blues fans, when a first half capitulation led to a 4-0 scoreline to Walthamstow at the break. Fortunately, it got no worse in the second half, but hopefully there will be no repeat this time round.

Manager, Darren Manning, will have a strong squad to choose from for this festive encounter, with the return of Sid Walker from suspension. And Blues will be hoping to get back to winning ways after recent defeats over a couple of weeks interrupted by postponements.

We will also be drawing the Christmas raffle, so don’t forget to bring your tickets along if you’ve bought them previously.

The game is scheduled for a 3pm start at the EMR stadium.

Come on you Blues !