Waltham Forest v Grays Athletic preview (18-8-12)

The Ryman League Division 1 North season begins in earnest tomorrow, and first up for Forest are a highly-fancied Grays Athetlic side.

Grays finished in the play-off positions last year, and lost out in the semi-final to eventual winners Grays Athletic on penalties.

As with a lot of sides, it is been a busy summer for Grays. Perhaps most impressively, they have brought in the Harlow trio of Leon Lalite, Luke Marshall and former Hawks manager Ryan Kirby.

They have also moved ground, and will be spending the next two seasons at Rush Green, the former Ford Sports and Social Club.

Saturday will be the 17th time we have played Grays in all competitions. The two sides first met on the 17th of December 1996, when we lost 1-0 in the Full Members Cup. A year later, we won 3-0 in the same competition to record our first victory.

We have only ever beaten Grays four times in our history, only two of which came in league matches. The last such victory was on the 12th of December 1998, when a brace from Billy Read helped us to a 3-0 victory.

Our most recent victory was a 1-0 win in the League Cup during the 2010-11 season, a victory which proved to be one of only a couple Tony Mercer would oversee that year.

Coincidentally, Grays were our opposition for our first home match last season, when we lost 2-1. Our first home match record now stands at:
Won: 6
Drawn: 2
Lost: 8

Tomorrow will also see the debut of the all-new Waltham Forest FC match-day programme. Still only £1.50, it is packed with all the regular features, and some new ones for the new season. Guaranteed the best value for money in the Ryman League.

If you can’t make tomorrow’s match, you can folllow it live on Twitter or on Facebook.