Match Preview

This weekend, weather permitting, Grays Athletic host east London neighbours Redbridge FC, looking to get their quest for league points back on track.

Redbridge FC is the latest incarnation of a club that began as Briggs Motor Bodies FC, then Briggs Sports FC who were a leading amateur club in this area in the post war period. Achievements included a semi-final appearance in the FA Amateur Cup in 1954, losing to the then mighty Bishop Auckland FC in front of 54,000 spectators at St James Park, Newcastle.

Ford Sports FC, a separate club then took over Briggs Sports in 1959, when the Ford Motor Company bought out the Briggs company. They played their home games at Rush Green, a venue Grays fans will remember fondly, although the club registered little success over the following years.

In the early 2000s, Fords withdrew their sponsorship, making their tenure of Rush Green unsustainable, moving to the old Barkingside ground at Oakwood, near Newbury Park. Under a new chairmanship, considerable investment was put into the club and ground - to the point where on the creation of the Conference South division in 2004-05, Ford United were allocated a place at that level, alongside Grays Athletic, although their stay lasted only one season, dropping back into the Isthmian League. There then followed a number of turbulent seasons, lit up only by a famous run to the Second Round Proper of the FA Cup in 2011-12. However, soon after another relegation found the Motormen back in the Essex Senior League after nearly twenty years away.

Last season, a runners-up placing in the ESL, saw Redbridge enter the promotion playoff and win a place back in the Isthmian League.

Our two clubs met regularly until that final relegation, although the Blues have had much the better of the history, with nine wins from fifteen encounters - most famously in 2013 when an injury time overhead kick from Junior Baker under the lights at Oakwood maintained Grays famous winning run that year.

This season, Redbridge find themselves at the lower end of the table, albeit with a couple of games in hand, following a fine run in the FA Trophy to the First Round proper and a journey to the final of the Essex Senior Cup (the final of which is on Tuesday evening). Recent league results have been somewhat mixed for the Motormen. Good wins against Walthamstow and Heybridge Swifts have counter-balanced heavy defeats against Maldon and Lowestoft. Ex Blues, Lewis Clark and Ronnie Winn are regulars for Redbridge. Both sides are in need of the points to help secure their league position.

Come on you Blues !