WHEN Ascot United take to Wembley‘s hallowed turf this afternoon, there won’t be many dry eyes in the Grant family as brothers Harry and Alfie shoot for FA Vase glory.
Football has been a way of life in their household, with Harry starting his career at Sheffield Wednesday and Gillingham before moving into Non-League where he has played with Alfie at Reading City and North Leigh.
Freddie is at Farnborough – Joe and Archie complete the five brothers – while their unde is a certain former Brentford, Barnet and Gillingham boss Martin Allen.
We jumped on a Zoom call with the paii’ ahead of the big day..
NIP: You’re playing at Wembley on Sunday! Does it feel real yet?
ALFLE GRANT: From the start of the season to now feels like a lifetime ago. It’s been quite a campaign, especially across the league, and, reflecting on it now, it feels like a fitting end to what lias been an incredible journey to play at one of the greatest stadiums in the world.
HARRY GRANT: It has been a strange couple of weeks. The season finishes and everyone else at our level is on their holidays. We’ve still been going into training. It’s strange because you’re not training for a game at the weekend against a team in your league, you’re training to play a game in the best stadium in the UK. It’s been a bizarre experience. Since Sunday it’s gone up a few levels. We’ve trained at Bisham Abbey and the Made-jski Stadium. It’s exciting.
AG: What makes it more special is that it’s not just in the Ascot United camp – the buzz of it seeps into every area of your life. At work, everybody is buzzing. All my friends are buzzing for me across from when I was at uni, to my school mates, and other mates from other areas. It really does become all-encompassing which is the exciting thing about it. You can’t escape it, it’s incredible.
NIP: Have you been to the stadium yet?
AG: Yeah, we went there, saw the changing rooms, did a lap of the pitch and soaked it up. That has made it feel real. Since that moment it’s gone from being something we spoke about to now. This is actually happening’.
HG: Same for me, All It’s gone from something on the horizon to something within touching distance.
HG: My girlfriend has been in charge of ticket buying. Last time I checked it was 45 – and that’s not including the five we get complimentary And that’s just family On top of that we’ve got 30 or 40 friends coming each.
AG: Everyone from our Sunday team, AFC Bradfield, is coming and showing their support. Pretty much all my colleagues at EMI are coming. That’s the part which makes me feel so proud and that it’s such a special event. These days don’t happen often for us at the lowest level of Non-League. This is what makes tire competition special – normal people can have this completely special event that will never happen again. HG: Quite often hi Non-League football it can be quite lonely You can be travelling back from the a**e end of nowhere on a Tuesday at midnight, the next morning you’re up at 7am for work and you might get your mum ask how you’ve played but that’s about it.
In moments like this, you really see the support you get as a person and footballer. It’s great and something we are really proud of.
AG: I just like how football puts you in random situations. You go on little adventures with people you otherwise might not associate with, hi Manchester I was in a room with Chrissy Ellis – one of my centre back partners – you get to know about his job and what he does. Football brings loads of people together. It’s like the Salford and Wrexham documentaries, it’s so universal That’s why I think Non-League is the best thing in the world because it brings so many people together.
HG: Almost every club you go to has those similar characters whether it’s the guys on the turnstile or behind the bar. You’re all bonded together. We’ve got so many unique characters at Ascot.
AG: The trips are some of the best moments I’ve had. I liked getting away ties in the Vase because it becomes little adventures to go on. It almost empowers the group. Each away game in this competition has bonded us together as this unpenetrable group of people.
HG: The amount of service station parties we’ve had this season!
Going in with a speaker on our shoulder and having a party while getting a Burger King!
AG: The journey is the reward of this competition. Of course Sunday is so special and the final showdown. Blit if I look back, it’s the journey that makes it so special.
NLP: It’s going to be a nice moment for your close family because they really know the personal journeys you’ve been on.
AG: It’s a special moment for oiu’ mum, for all those hours she drove us to and from training. It’s for our dad, for our brothers – Fred, Joe, Archie – it’s a really special moment, like a coming of age moment.
One of the most important things for me is us, as brothers. Me understanding Harry’s journey so well from being a professional football player and then having this moment taken away from him, almost, a few years ago for Thatcham. He played in every single round and didn’t feature in the final.
For me, part of that grit and fire in my belly comes from almost wanting to do Harry justice and let him have this moment. That’s been part of my motivation for this. It’s so special for our immediate family but also for us as brothers.
HG: I really saw what it meant to, not just our family but all the lads’ families at Corsham when won the semi-final. I saw my dad cry for the first time, my mum was in bits. But not just ours, everyone’s parents and families. It was such an emotional day Sunday is going to be a big celebration, regardless of the result.
NLP: Probably from the outside we forget how your families experience the ups and downs of yoiu- careers too.
HG: They’re excited as we are. Mum works at a school and she’s told everyone. Dad rings ten times a day asking all sorts of questions.
There’s a family coach leaving at 9am on Smiday morning, decorated with yellow flags. It’s amazing and I am so happy we can make them proud.
NLP: Harry has not getting on the pitch for Thatcham in the 2018 final been a big motivation for you?
HG: I feel I had to go through that moment to get this one. Which I suppose is a message to any footballer – you’re going to have setbacks but it doesn’t mean that moment is gone. And, by the way it’s not just me. The beautiful thing about football is every team has so many stories and it’s the culmination of people’s ups and downs that lead to successes. Brendan (Matthew), oiu’ top scorer, w’as let go by his last club and he’s had to prove a point by scoring 50 goals this season. Everyone has them story That’s why I love Non-League football so much. Honest lads who have maybe not made it into the pro game but are still giving it a go every week.
NLP: Do you remember your first cup final?
HG: I remember scoring my penalty in a six-a-side tournament at Baiton but my team-mate missed -1 ran off to my mum crying, I w’as devastated. I wfas probably about eight. Football has been such a huge thing in our lives as brothers. I am nearly 30 now and I do wonder what I am going to do with my life when I can’t play! It’s been ingrained in us.
NLP: Harry you’re the oldest, did yon hand down your boots to your little brothers?
HG: Me and Fred would share but Alf’s got canoe feet. He’d share with Joe. They’re bigger than me and Fred.
NLP: Uncle Mar-tin has no doubt given some good ‘ advice along the way?
AG: His advice is a lot more emotionally centred. He really cares for us and loves us so it’s not about specific tactics or ways you play, it’s is this making you feel goal? Throughout this competition he just wants to see us enjoy our football.
HG: He always keeps it short and sweet but there’s always a nugget of really important information you know has come from a goal place.
AG: Some of his off-the-wall thoughts and crazy stuff lie did has naturally bled into who we are. Our team-mates would call us wacky and a bit crazy – it’s doing Stuff to keep the lads from not being stressed in pressure situations. We get that from our Uncle. When it’s the heat of battle, how do you motivate people in peculiar ways? Our Uncle was so goal at that. We get that from him.
HG: He often gets unfairly cast as a joker or a bit of a mad man, but everything is thought out. It all conies from a very serious space. It’s all to win.
AG: He instilled a winners mentality in us since we could walk. Playing games at Christmas, il was: You have to win. The amount of times we played card games and someone would end up crying.
I remember doing a first-team pre-season at Gillingham when I was 14. They were doing road running and I literally fainted in his office at Priestfield after. It was tills relentlessness of: If you want to be a footballer and a winner, do as I say
HG: We have loads of cousins and we would kick lumps oui of each other in his garden playing World Cup singles. AG: Me and H have a joke that I am channelling centre backs Martin has had over the years. An Adam Barrett or a Michael Nelson or a Sain Sodje. That temperament of a centre-back who wins all then’ aerial duels, commands the defence and is a warrior. A lot comes from watching games of Martin’s teams.
HG: Part of my fond childhood memories are from going up and down 1he country to wherever Mail in’s teams were. Sitting in the manager’s office after, kicking tells atout in the corridors, we spent horn’s at (Brentford’s) Griffin Park on Saturday evenings waiting for him to Finish.
NLP: He’ll be there Sunday?
HG: He did joke that West Ham have offered him an am-bassador job on the same day He said, ‘Oh, I don’t know whether to go there or watch you two at Wembley?’. He’ll be there.
We’ve got our shirts printed and our mum, Fred and other brother Joe didn’t know what number to get on the back, so now it’s ‘Grant 826’. I’m 8 and Alf is 26 so we’ve put them together!
HIP: So now it’s the Final countdown…
HG: We’re doing a light session on Saturday morning before going to the hotel and then it’s all goal to go on Sunday I must say our manager Jamie Tompkins’ prep has been brilliant. His attention to detail-and his assistant Dean Green-waxi – throughout this whole journey has been so meticulous. JT is going to have a really bright future. He’s only 32.
AG: ‘lb put it on record so 1 look like Mystic Mac – I guarantee he will end up managing in the National League. The way he communicates, he’s almost like a therapist – you feel so calm when tie speaks. The training sessions, the analysis, the detail and calmness in high pressure moments.
We wouldn’t have achieved what we have without him as manager and Dean as assistant. The whole Standard of everything tills season has been impeccable. HG: It’s a pleasure to play un der him and and his coaching staff.
HIP: Whatever happens on Sunday I’m sure it will be a proud day for you two to tie on the Wembley pitch together AG: Imagine the moment when Harry pings a comer in and I head it home! I reckon it will be in the last third of the game.
HG: To win it!
-The buzz of it seeps into every area of your life. It really does becomeall-encompassing. You can’t escape it, it’s incredible’
Alfie Grant on reaching the Wembley final
‘There’s a family coach leaving at 9am on Sunday morning, decorated with yellow flags. It’s amazing and I am so happy we can make them proud’
Harry Grant
