Hashtag United

Getting to know the ‘one-of-akind’ football club

With over 1.5m followers across social media, we had the pleasure of catching up with local football club Hashtag United’s CEO Spencer Owen who told us more about his wonderful club and the incredible 7-year journey it has been on since it was first founded…

Can you give readers a background into your own football career as a whole from your junior days to now as founder and player of Hashtag United?

I started playing in my early teenage years for Brentwood Boys (now Brentwood Athletic) and Hartswood Stars, before moving to Danbury and playing for Heybridge Boys.

At 16, I actually formed my own team with school mates from KEGS (Chelmsford) that played in the Chelmsford Youth District League. Whilst at Reading University I played for the University team before then playing adult Sunday league football throughout the Chelmsford and Brentwood leagues until 2016 when Hashtag United was formed.

Make no mistake, any success I’ve had in football has come in spite of my abilities rather than because of them! My biggest highlights came through YouTube charity games such as the Wembley Cup where I was lucky enough to play multiple times in front of crowds of 34,000+ people and with and against players such as Steven Gerrard, Robert Pires and many more legends of the game. Hashtag was formed around my friends and my brother’s friends, many of whom played with me at school and university.

What would you say you are most proud of having achieved at the club so far?

There’s so much to be honest. The merger with our brilliant women’s team and youth set up is right up there for sure. Winning the first title, and achieving two promotions with the men since we joined non-league is also massive. But it’s also hard not to highlight playing in front of 34,000 people at Wembley stadium!

With over half a million subscribers on YouTube, can you explain just how much support you have received not only from the online community but locally as well and did you even envisage a fan base of this magnitude?

The support we have online is incredible and really sets us apart as a truly unique club, not just locally but globally. We are one of the most followed clubs in the UK and we usually finish in the top 6/7 spots nationally on charts ranking things like monthly YouTube views and followers etc.

It’s amazing to have so many people from across the globe continue to support our team, buy our shirts and watch our videos. Locally, it’s definitely stepped up since we merged with Forest Glade youth club at Barleylands in Billericay. We inherited an incredible family of local football lovers, be them kids or parents, many of whom are now crucial parts of the organisation of the club. However, we still believe there’s a lot of people in the local community that don’t really see us as a local asset though, partly due to our unique club name not featuring the name of a place/town in it. But we are very much based in this part of Essex, and proud of it, with our offices in Brentwood and Brentwood being where I live and grew up.

How would you assess the 202223 season so far and are there any upcoming fixtures/events local readers can look forward to?

Both teams are doing fantastically well. Our Men’s 1st team sit 2nd in the Isthmian North and are very much aiming for a promotion, and the Women’s 1st team sit top of the National League Division 1 South East, having already beaten professional teams such as Ipswich this season and at the time of writing this have a HUGE FA Cup 4th round tie coming up away against Championship side Coventry on January 29th. If we get through that, we could draw a WSL club like Arsenal, West Ham or Chelsea. Our women’s team are also Essex champions so we see them as the pride of the county!

We’d love readers to get themselves down to a game to support either team, both of which are winning a lot of games. Our men ground-share with Bowers and Pitsea (near Basildon) and our women ground-share with Aveley.

Where would you like Hashtag United to be in the next 10-20 years?

One thing that’s huge for us is getting our own ground, and getting our teams playing out of the same venue. It’s something we haven’t been able to achieve yet but is very much on our radar. We want to put down proper roots in the local community and build a local support that can rival our amazing online/ global fan base. I’d love for Hashtag to be seen as a valued part of the local community and see some more of our youth players transition into the senior sides. We already have a great set up at our Forest Glade site in Barleylands with over 40+ teams and 500+ boys and girls representing Hashtag United and I’d love to see that grow even stronger too. Follow the club online through social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok), YouTube and their website www.hashtagunited.co.uk