Pitching In Isthmian Supporters Predictions 2020-21: Grays Athletic

We asked supporters of our Isthmian League clubs to preview the new season, reflect on the old and predict the final outcome. Their predicted 1-20 (or 22) will be worked into a final table which you will see just before the big kick off.

Glyn Jarvis gives us a tour of the Grays half of Parkside, gets nostalgic about a past club hero, hopes for better things, and isn’t very impressed by the F.A.

1. How do you feel about the return of football?

It was 22 weeks from our last competitive game on 7 March to our first pre-season game on 8 August, and I don’t think I have ever gone so long without my football fix in the 62 years I have watched my team, so it was good to be back! I accept these are very different times and we must take heed of advice given if we are to get back to watching football in a safe environment and enjoy the game we love.

2. The world has changed enormously since you were last able to watch a live football match. Will the pandemic change your approach to watching the game- will you attend as many matches as you used to, and spend as much time at the ground/in the clubhouse, etc?

As a vulnerable person, being a 72 year-old, I will be more aware of the precautions required, but I still hope to sell programmes at our home games and take my seat on the coach for away games where we use one. Attending as many games as possible is my idea of being a supporter and that won’t change for me.

3. Last season had many exciting moments before its premature end. What was your favourite moment?

It was a difficult season for us. After a very good start, we drifted down the table and were struggling to find a win when the authorities called a halt. We were then in 14th position in the league with nine games to play, so it was a mixture of disappointment and relief.

My favourite moment came very early. We beat one of the best sides (and clubs) in our division, Heybridge Swifts, in the FA Cup Preliminary Round in August. The 5-2 scoreline didn’t flatter us.

4. And what was your worst moment?

As it turned out, the best moment turned into the worst moment too. In our Heybridge game, when we were 5-1 up, we gave a debut to a newly signed player for the last twenty minutes. We conceded a goal while he was on the pitch, but a few weeks later (after we had beaten March Town in the next round and were looking forward to the tie with Kingstonian), we were charged with fielding that player as being ineligible against Heybridge. He had played for Witham Town (in the League) and East Thurrock United (in the FA Trophy) in the previous season following his return from the USA, but it was alleged that he had not received international clearance for them, or for us!

I was one of the two directors who represented our club at the FA appeal hearing. We were expelled from the competition and had to repay the prize money we had received from the two games we had won and lost the chance to beat Kingstonian in the next round. As I left the hallowed board room at Wembley where the meeting was held, I recall saying to the FA member who had chaired the hearing that this was not what I expected from the governing body of our game when I started watching grass roots football over 60 years ago. It still hurts me to write about it.

5. How will you do this season?

With at least half the clubs in our Division appearing to be unaffected by the economic ills that have hit so many clubs, with their seemingly bottomless pockets limiting our inability to persuade a number of players we had approached to join us, I expect us to be outside the top group again. Our 100% supporter-owned model would work beautifully with a ground to call our own. That prospect is still some way off, being subject to the vagaries of Thurrock Council’s emerging Local Plan which appears to have stalled with no public consultation taking place during lockdown. We remain indebted to our very loyal band of shareholder fans to help keep us at Step 4 of the non league pyramid for the time being. We have retained ten of last season’s squad who can hopefully prove that they can work with some new, generally younger and ambitious players and give our supporters something to cheer about during the eight or so months ahead of us. Let’s all hope we can complete the season this time and look forward to a summer break which might even include some foreign travel for the Jarvis family.

6. Which matches are you most looking forward to going to- and why?

We have become the underdogs locally, so the Thurrock derbies against promotion-chasing Aveley and Tilbury will be challenging. The seven out-of-county trips to Suffolk, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire always make a nice day out even if we don’t always feel we get the rub the green when we play outside Essex.

7. What is your favourite away ground?

I’m repeating myself from previous seasons, but AFC Sudbury is always a welcoming ground with good people to meet and good players to play against.

8. Who do you consider your biggest rivals- and why?

Tilbury are our traditional main rivals. With their ambitious plans for a new stadium they are clearly heading in the right direction as a club. We hope we can soon catch up with them. With our landlords, Aveley already settled in their splendid Parkside Stadium and Premier Division East Thurrock United announcing their own plans to relocate to a new facility, Thurrock could well become the hotbed of non-league football it has been in the past.

9. What advice would you give to any away supporter visiting you for the first time?

Make a point of spending a little time at our “Supporters Table” when you come through the turnstile on your way to the spacious Parkside bar. Our volunteers are always welcoming and you can buy a programme, edited by yours truly, so it must be worth £2 for the read, some raffle tickets with a half time draw and splendid prizes donated by our supporters, or just look at some of the excellent merchandise on offer and some books charting the history of our 130 year-old club.

10. Who is your favourite player of all time (for your club)- and why?

Since 1958 when I saw my first Grays game, I have seen some wonderful players grace our shirt, some rather more average ones and a few that I care not to dwell on. This is my third year of answering this question and it’s good to be able to pick a third different player as it has been difficult to limit my choice.

After going with a goalkeeper and a striker previously, this time it’s a midfielder. Many of our older supporters will remember him as he played between 1982 and 1997 and holds the appearance record for the club - 748. Phil Sammons joined us when the club was trying hard to recover from a difficult time where we were in dispute with the Trustees who owned the Recreation Ground where we played. He helped us progress through the Athenian League to the Premier Division of the Isthmian League.

He was not the BEST player I ever saw in a Grays shirt and I hope he wouldn’t mind me saying that, but he epitomised all that was good about us during those years. He worked hard in every game he played and played within a system set by the management. We had a reputation as a “long-ball” team under out twin managers, Jeff and Fred Saxton. They said that we played to our strengths by putting the ball into the right areas to put our opponents under maximum pressure. Whatever it was we did, we very, very good at it, as the results over that period proved. Phil also scored some important goals and his VERY long throws used to cause pandemonium in opposition back lines when our tall forwards and defenders could benefit from them.

During his time with us he was also Secretary of Collier Row FC. Around the time he retired from playing, he also left his teaching job and became the Chief Executive of the Essex County FA. He has now retired from that job, but is still involved with helping to run the County Schools’ teams. His son, Ryan, played more than 450 games for East Thurrock United. Clearly club loyalty is an important family trait. He joined us last season and It’s always good to see Phil come along to games to support his son, often with his wife, Gina. A real football family.

11. Who will be in the top five at the end of the season?

Brentwood Town Romford, Bury Town, Tilbury and Aveley.

Would you like to represent your club? Get in touch now and we'll send you the details. Email Ian on townsendaround@gmail.co.uk.