After a 6-0 demolition of Hullbridge Sports, my new Fa Cup glory hunt team is Grays Athletic.
Being a Dagenham and Redbridge fan as I am, I have memories of seeing the Daggers playing Grays on more than one occasion, most recently would have been in the 2005/06 and 2006/07 seasons in the Conference.
In 2006 my team finished a creditable 10th in the league, the Blues however had a fantastic season. The Gravelman finished the season in 3rd position that year and qualified for the play-offs, an amazing feat given that they had only been promoted that season from what is now the Conference South. Although Grays failed to make the play-off final at Wembley having lost in the semi final to Halifax Town, they did manage to to reach the Fa Trophy final at Upton Park. The Blues won the game 2-0 against Woking courtesy of two late first half goals from Dennis Oli and Glenn Poole. The result meant that Grays had successfully retained the Trophy after winning it as a Conference South team 12 months before at Villa Park, when they had beaten Hucknall Town on penalties.
In the run up to the 2006 Fa Trophy final Grays beat the Daggers at the quarter final stage. A goal from Glenn Poole was cancelled out by a Craig Mackail-Smith equaliser and meant the two Essex teams would have to playout a replay at Victoria Road. I went to both these games and remember how close Mackail-Smith had come to winning the game at The Rec late on. I was very confident the Daggers would finish the job at home considering how well we had played in the first game.
Unfortunately for me and the rest of the Daggers fans my team were taught a lesson in wing play. Glenn Poole on the Left and Michael Kightly on the right absolutely ripped us a part that day as the Blues walked into the semi final after a 4-2 victory. Mackail-Smith and Sam Saunders scored for the Daggers but goals from John Nutter, Dennis Oli, Glenn Poole and Jamie Stuart made it a comfortable victory for the Gravelman.
In the league that season the teams recorded a win each, both were away wins as well. Grays had travelled to Victoria Road in September when a Stevland Angus 88th minute winner took all the points. Stuart Thurgood had opened the scoring before Chris Moore had equalised. In the return game in the February Daggers run out 4-0 winners thanks to goals from Paul Bruce, Glen Southam and a brace from Cliff Akurang.
The next season Dagenham and Redbridge would be promoted as Conference champions and the two meetings in the league saw the Blues take a point in a 0-0 draw at Victoria Road but another Craig Mackail-Smith strike clinched the points at the Recreation Ground.
Other than in the Essex Senior Cup that game would have been the last time my time would have played Grays.
Dagenham and Redbridge may have had some players in the past that have gone on to bigger and better things, but the amount of players who have passed through Grays on their way to the big time is unbelievable. Aaron McLean, Michael Kightly, Gary Hooper and Danny Cadamarteri. Not to mention the likes of Glenn Poole, Dennis Oli and Stuart Thurgood who all went on to do well at a higher level.
Players who have played for both Daggers and Grays.
Current manager Mark Bentley has been at Grays since 2014. Bentley made 25 appearances for the Daggers between 2003 and 2004 scoring 6 goals.
Lee Matthews joined Dagenham in 1998 and made over 150 appearances for the club. He Joined Grays in 2005 from Daggers and made 19 appearances. The former Daggers captain career was dogged by injury.
Stuart Thurgood joined Grays from Southend United in 2003, played 157 times and scored on 26 occasions before joining Gillingham in 2008. After a year at Priestfield he returned to Grays initially on loan before signing permanently having only played 7 times for the Gills. Thurgood joined Dagenham in 2009. He only played 17 times for the Daggers before picking up an injury which basically ended his career. Although the midfielder played less than 20 games for Daggers I would say he was the best central midfielder ever to play at Victoria Road. Always gave everything and did the job of two midfielder’s, allowing other players freedom around the pitch. No doubt he was a legend for Grays, it was just a shame that injury shortened his carer and he wasn’t able to become the same legendary name at Dagenham.
Glenn Poole played 75 times for Grays between 2005 and 2007 netting 19 times, before moving to Brentford. When he left Brentford in 2009 he was about to sign for Dagenham and Redbridge, unfortunately the deal never went through. Glenn was given a squad number and even appeared in the clubs team photo for the start of that season but John Still never finalised the deal. It was a big shame as Poole would have been the perfect replacement for Matt Ritchie who had spent the majority of the season before on loan to Daggers from Bournemouth. Instead the winger returned to Grays, before having spells at Afc Wimbledon and Barnet. Glenn has played for Braintree, Thurrock and Billericay. He now plays for Canvey Island. Glenn Poole runs his own Soccer Academy, which I can highly recommend due to my son being a regular attendee of it.
Glenn also recommended my son to a football team that he has now made over 100 appearances for.
Other players to have played for both clubs include Ian Gayle, Billy Bingham, Alex Osborn and Duran Reynolds.
Anyway back to the football and Saturday sees Grays travel to Reynolds field and take on Hanwell Town.
Hanwell are managed by Phil Granville.
They are nicknamed the Geordies, they were founded in 1920 and have a ground capacity of 3000.
The blues will be big,big favourites to progress to the next round, but the road to Fa cup glory is littered with plenty of banana skins. Grays will be hoping for a good win and a comfortable passage to the next round.
Up the Blues!!
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