On Easter Saturday, Grays Athletic travel to the Techsoc.com Stadium in Barkingside, to take on Redbridge FC, looking to extend their amazing winning run to a 9th game.

The teams met at the EMR at the end of August when a fast start by Redbridge, combined with a sluggish start by The Blues was decisive. Captain of The Motormen, James Barlow, scored after 7 minutes, with Tyler Dolan adding a second two minutes later and it could easily have been more. Luke Hirst got one back on 48 minutes but an equaliser could not be found and the points returned to East London.

Head to Head Record

This needs some explaining due to Redbridge's history. Originally they said were two teams, Ford Sports and Briggs Motor Bodies, with the latter changing their name to Briggs Sports after the Second World War. These two teams were merged in 1959 to form Ford United, who in turn were renamed Redbridge F.C. at the end of the 2003/04 season.

From the various club names you can see where the nickname, The Motormen came from!

Grays Athletic played all of these teams in Cup competitions going right back to an F.A. Amateur Cup win over Ford Sports in 1934. For several years in the 1980s we had an annual game with Ford United for the Ford Rate Trophy.
Also, away from Cup competitions, Athletic's pre season preparations in the 1980s and early 1990s were regularly completed with a game against Ford United, so we were familiar opponents during this period.

The overall H2H record for competitive games against Redbridge's predecessors stands at P29 W14 D3 L12

Against Redbridge, we played one another in their first season, 2004/05, in the inaugural Conference South, where the teams had contrasting fortunes; Grays running away with the title and Redbridge finishing bottom. We next met in the 2010/11 season in the Isthmian League and this is our fifth season together at this level with Redbridge regaining their status after winning a Step 4/5 playoff in 2022/23.

Last seasons game at Redbridge was spoiled (at least for The Blues) by Alejandro Machedo receiving two early yellow cards from a less than sympathetic official. Redbridge took full advantage with goals from Jack Chawner (2), Tendai Quamina and Soumen Nandi giving them a 4-1 win. Charlie Stimson replied for Grays.

The Head to Head against Redbridge is P13 W8 D2 L3. This includes 2 games in Cup competitions, both won by The Blues.

The Gaffer

Redbridge are managed by Chris Taylor who joined from Basildon United at the start of January. He was Basildon's manager when they beat The Blues at The Hive on August Bank Holiday.

Chris's playing career included a spell with Tilbury and over 150 appearances for Romford. In Thurrock F.C's final season, Romford were their tenants and in the final match of the season, played at "home". Therefore, Chris can lay claim to having played in the last ever league game at Ship Lane before its closure.

Chris is assisted by Scott Canham (an ex-West Ham United youngster, who signed for Grays in 2006, but never played) and Eddie Proctor. Since joining Redbridge the management team have galvanised the side, winning 9 games out of 15 and picking up 29 points.

Redbridge's Season So Far

The Motormen have had a transitional season, but a good one, sitting in 11th place with 56 points, having finished in 13th place last term. They did lose several key players to rivals, such as Louie Johnson to Walthamstow, Lewis Clark to Tilbury, Oscar Shelvey-Negus to Witham, plus Connor Wheatley and Ayo Odukoya to Brentwood. All this necessitated a rebuild during the campaign.

They started this season with George Christou in charge. He had guided Redbridge to promotion and an amazing win in the Essex Senior Cup last campaign. He left in October and later, together with coach Jack Toghli, joined the management team at Brightlingsea Regent.

In the league they have had some notable wins including an excellent 5-2 win at the Techsoc.com stadium, against in form Brightlingsea and 3-0 against local rivals, Walthamstow.

The cups have been less kind this season. A replay win over Great Wakering Rovers in the Extra Preliminary Round of the F.A.Cup, was followed by a home loss to Essex Senior League side, Barking. The remaining cups saw an exit at the first stage, all at home, to Haringey Borough in the F.A.Trophy, Brentford in the London Cup and to Brightlingsea in the Essex Senior Cup. The Motormen did not enter the Velocity Trophy.

Joseph Elliott has made the most appearances this season with 43. Robert Bagnall and Solomon Ogunwomojou are next with 34 appearances each.
Top goal scorer is Tendi Quamina with 13 (12 in the league). Fotsing Pitoula Wabo has scored 9 times since making his debut in December.

Playing Links

There have been many players to have represented both sides plus an ex-manager.

Craig Edwards first spell in charge of The Blues came to an end in 2002/03. He moved to Ford United and remained in charge as they became Redbridge. A number of ex-Blues joined him including Alex Fiddes, Sammy Cooper, Richard Halle, Allan Mcleod, Craig Edwards Jr and Jamie Lunan.

Of a more recent vintage, George and Ronnie Winn and Karl and Warren Kayembe have represented both clubs. The third set of brothers to appear for both clubs are Nathan and Aron Gordon. Lewis Clark moved to Redbridge last season, Charlie Stimson started this season with them and Nidal Berri moved across from Basildon United recently.

One final link, and one of our favourite ex-players, Glenn Poole, played for Ford United in the Isthmian Premier Division, scoring the winner against us in the last game of the 2002/03 season. A season at Purfleet in Conference South followed, before Glenn stepped up yet another level, joining Grays for our debut in the Conference. Although only with us for a season and a half, Glenn made his mark, and was a key player in the side that got so close to making the Conference play off final. Glenn scored crucial goals in both the league and, especially, the F.A.Trophy run, including the decisive goal against Exeter City in the Semi Final and our second goal in the Final at Upton Park.

Glenn left us to join Brentford, then managed by Terry Butcher, in the Football League where he had further success and even won their goal of the season competition.

He rejoined The Blues for a spell in 2017/18, with his last game being at Ship Lane versus Romford in April 2018. In the team that day was our current skipper, Michael Finneran.

Current Form

Redbridge come into the match in decent nick and are 6th in the form table with 10 points from their last 6 matches.

The return from the last 6 games at home is even better. They have won their last 4 after losses to Maldon and Tiptree and Felixstowe and Walton.

Most recently, they kept a clean sheet for an impressive draw away at Bury Town, in a game the homesters had to win to keep any realistic hopes of the Championship alive.

What more can we say about Grays current form? Eight wins on the spin in any division is rare, but in a division which is so competitive, it is a great achievement and something to savour while it lasts.

Grays have been especially good on the road with 4 wins and a draw in the last 6. Since losing at Ram Meadow the defence has been excellent with just two goals conceded in the last 5 away matches.

Last time out Grays completed the double over Felixstowe and Walton, at the EMR, with an expert Louie Remi finish.

Summary

Having lost heavily at the Techsoc.com stadium last year and being beaten again at the EMR this season, The Blues will want to exact some revenge on The Motormen.

Redbridge had a new 3G pitch installed for this season, so hopefully the lads can build on some good performances on a similar surface from earlier in the season, at Newmarket, Heybridge and most memorably at champions elect, Brentwood.

Redbridge will be a tough opponent and anyone keeping a clean sheet at Bury demands great respect, so this is a game not to miss. We look forward to seeing you all at the Techsoc.com stadium, giving the team that 12th man boost that has been so important throughout this season.

Come on you Blues!

Getting There

The ground's postcode is IG6 1NB.

By car take the A12 heading towards Gants Hill. At the 2nd set of traffic lights after Newbury Park underground station, (JD Sports is on the corner), turn right into Horns Road.
Follow this for around a mile or so, until the road starts to bear left. Take a right turn into Craven Gardens and immediately right again into Carlton Drive.
At the mini roundabout, take the first exit and go up the hill on Station Road. Over the railway and the ground and car park are on the right.

The ground is next to Barkingside underground station on the Central Line. To get there, take the C2C to West Ham and then the Jubilee Line to Stratford. Transfer to the Central Line for the Hainault Loop.

Total travel time from Grays should be just over an hour, but with Bank Holiday disruption for engineering works over large parts of the network expected, please check before travelling and allow some extra time.