It seems only five minutes ago that we bid farewell to the 2023/24 football season and yet this weekend we say hello to 2024/25 with the first pre-season friendly of the new campaign.

Manager, Darren Manning, has been busy over the past few weeks, retaining a number of players from last year’s squad, moving others out and bringing in several new faces to strengthen his options.

Pre-season is a good chance to build momentum for the months of league fixtures ahead, building on the preliminary work already done on the training ground. It also gives fans the chance to run the rule over the new members of the squad, all of whom will be keen, I am sure, to become a favourite on the terraces, and maybe even blessed with the ultimate accolade of their own song from the Blues Choir.

Grays start their 24/25 adventure across the Thames at Chatham Town.

Our original encounters with Chatham were in the 2011/12 and 2012/13 league seasons in Isthmian 1N, which produced two wins for Blues and two draws - and a league cup quarter final the season after, which Grays won on penalties after a 3-3 draw.

Since those time however, Chatham Town have undergone a major transformation and are now one of the strongest sides in the Isthmian League. Having been relegated from this level in 2016/17, the club has made fast and furious progress - only missing out on a third consecutive promotion, when losing the Isthmian Premier Division play-off final to Enfield at the end of last season. Crowds have swelled and The Chats will be hoping to be a major player in that division again.

So Grays have chosen perhaps their hardest pre-season challenge for their first outing. Whatever the result, Darren will surely learn plenty about his new squad, seeing some of them for the first time against this kind of opposition.

Don’t forget folks that the game kicks off at 1pm, to give us all time to get frantically worried about England’s Euros quarter-final later in the afternoon.

The game takes place at

The Sports Ground
Maidstone Road, Chatham, Kent ME4 6LR.

DIRECTIONS TO THE GROUND:

Exit the M2 at junction 3 and follow directions for Chatham & Town Centre. You will pass a Homebase on your left. Continue straight over the roundabout and you will approach a split in the road – bear right for Chatham. You are now on Maidstone Road – continue straight over the cross roads where you will see a petrol station on the left. Bournville Road is opposite the petrol station. Entrance to the ground Car Park is first left on Bournville Road.

Come on You Blues