After three weeks and five consecutive away games, Grays Athletic finally return to the EMR stadium on Saturday for an FA Cup 1st Qualifying Round tie against Leiston FC from Suffolk. Kick off is at 3.00pm.

Our Opponents

Leiston, also nicknamed The Blues, are a well established Step 3 side who ply their trade in the Southern League Premier Central.

The club were formed in 1880, moving to their current Victory Road ground in 1921. Their first appearance in the FA Cup had been in 1919 when they lost to long term rivals, Lowestoft Town.

The Blues made progress at the start of millennium reaching the Eastern Counties League in 2001, gaining promotion to the Premier Division and then winning the title in 2010/11. This earned them promotion to Isthmian North where they joined Grays for the 2011/12 season. That first campaign at Step 4 proved to be a triumph, as they won the Championship and with it back to back promotions, this time to the Isthmian Premier.

Leiston reached the Isthmian Premier play offs in 2018/19, after finishing in 5th place, but lost a close game away at Dulwich Hamlet 1-0. At the end of that season they transferred across to the Southern League Premier Central. Again they reached the play offs in 2022/23 after their highest ever finish of 3rd place, but lost at home to Nuneaton Borough by 2-1.

Their consistency is remarkable. Since 2001/2, in 23 completed seasons they have only finished outside the top 10 in their league on 3 occasions. They finished last season in 10th place with 63 points from their 42 games.

Head to Head

In competitive games we had five seasons together in Isthmian North and then the Isthmian Premier, plus one cup encounter. The Head to Head from Grays viewpoint is;
P11 W3 D3 L5 Goals For 13 Goals Against 24.

Specifically when Grays have been at "home", results have been better for us;
P5 W2 D2 L1 For 6 Against 6.

We have met once before in the FA Cup, also at the 1st Qualifying Round stage. That was 10 years ago and played at Victory Road where we took the lead but lost 4-1.

Our last meeting with Leiston was at Mill Field on 26th October 2016 when the sides dew 1-1. Gareth Heath opened the scoring for Leiston with Harry Watkins equalising for Grays before half time.

Former Players Who Also Played For Leiston

Our records show 4 players have played for both sides, Nicky Eyre, Ade Cole, Lee Flavin and Jake Hutchings.

In The Dugout

Leiston's manager is Chris Wigger who originally joined as joint manager with former Norwich City star, Darren Eadie, in 2020. Chris is now sole manager with support from Lee Norfolk, who in his playing days, made 4 first team appearances for Ipswich Town and had great success at AFC Sudbury.

Current Squad

Several of Leiston's squad may be familiar names as they have played against us for Isthmian North teams.

Goalkeeper Callum Robinson played for Stanway Rovers last season in their successful debut campaign at Step 4
Noel Aitkens is a classy midfielder who played against us on several occasions for former club, Felixstowe and Walton.
Bermudan international, Willie Clemons, played against us for both Stowmarket Town and Felixstowe and Walton and has scored twice this season.
Joao Rangel is also an international, representing Timor Leste. He has previously played against us for Lowestoft Town.
Harvey Sayer played against us for both Maldon and Tiptree and Lowestoft Town before a spell at National League level with Tamworth. He has scored 3 times this season.
Adam Mills played for AFC Sudbury and has experience at Step 2 level. The left sided forward is also Leiston's leading scorer this season with 6 goals in 6 games.

Last Time Out

Leiston were in league action at our old rivals, Bury Town and lost a thriller 4-3 in front of over a 1,000 spectators. Bury are in great form this season with 100% league record after 6 games, so it was a fine effort from The Blues. Their scorers were Adam Mills with two goals in 4 first half minutes and Willie Clemons.

However, they will be frustrated to lose to a goal scored in the very last play of the game. The scorer for Bury was Kiwi, Tommy Smith, completing his hat trick, not bad for a centre half! After the game, Bury's manager praised Leiston's performance as the best against his team this season.

For Grays, a tough week ended with a well deserved point on the road at Concord Rangers, another team who had won all their games this season. Twice we had to come from behind to goals scored at the start of each half. Arguably we should have taken the win, but its a step in the right direction.

Summary

In recent seasons, we have not managed to earn a home tie in the FA Cup against higher ranked opposition. We have to go all the way back to 2015 when we hosted Welling United at Mill Field, so this is a rare and important opportunity for us.

Leiston will be firm favourites to progress as a quality Step 3 side, but we are at home and we know we are capable of good football. If we maintain our concentration and discipline for the full match, then anything is possible.

If a replay is required, it is likely to be played on Tuesday evening at The Flannery Stadium, Victory Road, Leiston. If that is the case, then Wednesday's planned home league game with Witham Town will need to be postponed again.

Witham are also in Cup action today, at home to Stotfold. If this game goes to a replay, then the league game will still need to be rearranged, irrespective of what happens at the EMR.

Please come down and give the boys all your support and let's see if we can keep our Cup run going.

Come on You Grays!