AFTER last weekend's FA Cup win on the road at Barking, Grays Athletic start their 2025/26 Isthmian League North campaign at home to newly promoted Takeley FC on Saturday (9 August).

This will be Takeley's debut in the Isthmian League after they earned their promotion to Step 4 by finishing runners up to Stanway Rovers in last season's Essex Senior League and then beating Barking and then Woodford Town, both at 2-0 home in the playoffs.

Takeley deserved their promotion thanks to the best home record in the entire pyramid; 19 regular season home league games saw 18 wins and a draw followed by the play offs, both won at home. If that's not enough, they played four cup games at home and won the lot, giving them a home record of played 25, won 24 and 1 drawn.

Last season's successful manager, Alex Martin, has moved on and has been replaced by his assistant, Kieran Amos. It appears nearly all of last season's squad have been retained

Like Grays, Takeley had a win in the FA Cup last Saturday, beating Crawley Green from the Spartan South Midlands League, at home 5-2.

Grays will quickly be back in action on Monday evening, in the Isthmian North at Redbridge.