Friday 6 December 2019

When The Circus Is Postponed.....


Grays Athletic  2  Hullbridge Sports  0

Isthmian League – Division One North

“It’s a tenner mate, but we’ll give it you back if the game gets called off…….”

That really wasn’t what I wanted to be hearing as I paid my admission at the Brentwood Leisure Centre home of Romford FC, who were due to be playing neighbouring Tilbury in a high octane Essex Derby.

You see, I’d got a few games on the radar, so did my tried and trusted trick of pulling up at Toddington Services and then surveying the options. I’d got a few on plastic heading anti-clockwise round the M25, namely Dorking, Walton Casuals and Bracknell Town, but going clockwise, on grass, was Romford at the home they share with Brentwood Town.

Nothing was showing as 'off' on the Isthmian League website, in fact not a single pitch inspection had been called across the entire four divisions. Surely it was a safe bet to go and watch the next instalment of the Glenn Tamplin Travelling Circus?

After a diversion around the edges of the High Street in Brentwood due to a Christmas Fair, I was sat in the car park at 1.30pm, and made a steady and somewhat unconcerned move in the general direction of the turnstiles, where players were trickling through. It was then that the gate man gave me the news.


Ten minutes later and the referee had called it off, and to be honest it was a joke, an area of around four yards square in the middle of one of the penalty areas was sludgy. Not waterlogged, not dangerous, just sludgy, but, this is the modern day match official for you, frigging snowflakes!

So, back in the car at a quarter to two and I had to make a decision. I was certain a game would be taking place at Aveley’s Parskide ground, purely on the principal that three teams use it! I was right, Grays Athletic were playing Hullbridge Sports, and according to my trusty in car navigation system, it was doable in about twenty minutes, assuming I could weave my way back through Brentwood again.

I was coming off the M25 at the Aveley / Thurrock turn at around ten past two, the centre of Brentwood had not been entirely helpful, and once up past the Ship Lane former home of Thurrock FC I was reaching the spot where the sat-nav told me Aveley’s ground was located……


Schoolboy error, in haste, I’d programmed in the postcode of the old ground that they vacated, which was now a shiny new housing estate. Luckily though, the new ground was less than a mile away, down a dual carriageway, and within a couple of minutes I was parked up.

Parkside is a lovely stadium, sat on the very edges of the Essex town that is seeing a fair bit of new housing shooting up, such is it’s popularity as a commuter hotspot for London. The car park is sizeable and more than big enough for the crowds both Aveley and Grays get, while the frontage of the main stand and club buildings is impressive with the clubs name (Aveley) picked out in a blue neon sign.


The building houses the dressing rooms, a fantastic clubhouse, various other rooms shooting off, and an upstairs viewing area of the pitch. The seats are located in front of the clubhouse but raised just high enough at the back to deter folk from watching the game from behind the closed glass doors.

Behind each goal are two small covered standing areas, one each side of the net, while opposite the main stand is a smaller seated stand but with a decent enough rake to provide a good view of the game. The pitch is clearly artificial, and gets a fair bit of usage it seems.


The move to Parkside has benefited Aveley in the sense that gates and indeed revenue are up, and clearly a club like Grays Athletic, who have been homeless since their old ground fell under the bulldozers, will be one of many who would be more than happy to contribute to the coffers to take advantage of it.

So lets talk about Grays Athletic then.

An Athenian League outfit and then an Isthmian League club, they shot to prominence in the mid-noughties when local businessman Mick Woodward took over the club. They finished high enough to qualify for the newly formed Conference South in 2004, and within a year of that they’d won the league and the FA Trophy along with it thanks to a victory over Hucknall Town on penalties at Villa Park (I was there!). This after beating Burton Albion 7-0 on aggregate in the semi-final.


They won the Trophy again the following year, beating Woking 2-0 at West Ham United, while in the Conference National they finished  an impressive third, losing to Halifax Town in the play offs.

They got to the semi-final stage of the Trophy the year after, losing to Stevenage Borough, but with funds drying up and Woodward resigning in 2009, after three seasons of struggle they finished bottom of the league in 2009-10 and elected to drop right down to the Isthmian League North at Step 4. This after appealing at being placed by the FA in the Essex Senior League.

They got promotion to the Premier Division in 2013, but by 2017 they were back in the North Division, where they remain.


The club played at Bridge Road, which Woodwards’s funds revamped significantly during his tenure, until 2010 when it was sold to developers, presumably to clear debts / repay Woodward. The club moved in with Thurrock, then East Thurrock United, before a spell at West Ham’s Rush Green training ground. This came to an end and henceforth the club find themselves at Aveley, firstly at the old ground, and now of course the new.

Right now, the club sit in the play off zone, and with gates holding up over the 200 mark, they will consider themselves well within a shout of making the move up to the Premier Division.

The game wasn’t completely one sided, but it was a relatively comfortable afternoon for Grays. The opening goal came in the fifteenth minute when the long serving, and impressive, Joao Carlos drilled the ball home from just inside the penalty area.

Grays, while in control, let the visitors have time in the ball in the second period but knowing that their goal threat was minimal. This tactic bore fruit in the 82nd minute when George Purcell cracked a free kick into the bottom corner of the net. It was a very comfortable and straightforward three points for the hosts.


Grays are a fan owned club nowadays, and they make no secret of the fact that they want a home of their own. The club have campaigned for a community stadium in Grays, but, a recent story has emerged that the disused Ship Lane ground, only a mile or so from Aveley, may end up becoming their home, although whether that would be a short or a long term option, I don’t know.

So, what started out as a trip to the Circus, ended up with a trip to Grays / Aveley, but, based on a very enjoyable afternoon out, I’m not going to complain about that.

And by the way, I did get my tenner back!

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