'See if we can do a mini-Wrexham' – Ambitious SOUL Tower Hamlets take heart after FA Cup exit as lowest-ranked team
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Published 16/09/2025 at 10:54 GMT+1
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TNT Sports are following the lowest-ranked team left in the Emirates FA Cup all the way to Wembley, passing the torch each round. We are back with ninth-tier Soul Tower Hamlets, who, following their heroics in the first qualifying round, were looking for similar success again when they welcomed Flackwell Heath, a team one step above them in the football pyramid, to east London.
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SOUL Tower Hamlets’ FA Cup journey is over for this season, but their story is far from reaching its conclusion.
In the second of our series following the lowest-ranked teams in this season’s competition, I was at Mile End Stadium after Ben Snowball previously saw them march into the second qualifying round following a resounding 4-1 thrashing of Ascot United.
On this occasion, I was unable to bring the Essex Senior League high-fliers the same luck as they went down 2-0 to Flackwell Heath, of the Southern League Division One Central.
As per the machinations of the English football pyramid, Flackwell are in the eighth tier (Step 4), a level above SOUL, who play in the ninth tier (Step 5).
Not that there was any sort of notable gulf between the sides, as a spirited performance against a team further up the food chain was settled by goals in the second half, yet provided encouragement that SOUL may have a brighter future to look forward to.
"Well, they were a better team than us," admitted co-manager Terry Spillane. "They’re the best team we've played this year, no doubt about that."
"I'd rather come out and say that, disappointed as I am, rather than ‘they was rubbish, we was better than them’ and they beat us 2-0, if that makes sense."
It did make sense, but no less upsetting for the players.
"They're disappointed, and they think they could have done better," the manager adds.
"But like I said to them, I don't think we can do any better than that. They are a very good side. They're Step 4 and it showed."
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Before beating Ascot in the previous round, SOUL overcame another Step 4 outfit in Hanworth Villa in the preliminary round, so a third win against a side at that level was certainly not out of the question.
"Proud of all the achievements this season," chairman Tarik Khan tells me afterwards.
The loss was SOUL’s first of the campaign across all competitions, with three wins and two draws from their first five league matches in addition to their cup run.
Far from downbeat, Khan feels that their efforts against teams playing at a higher level highlight their own ever-growing strengths.
"The two teams we've beaten in the previous rounds, they were also from Step 4", he says. "But I think this team looked like they were on form. They were much more organised than the other teams we played this season, so I think that showed quite a lot.
"I think we can compete. I think we are ready to compete."
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Soul Tower Hamlets
Image credit: From Official Website
'We are a football club, but we can make a change'
Arriving at Mile End Stadium, the mood is clearly a positive one. I am greeted by the scene of some of the players laughing and joking with Zak, the pre-teen son of club secretary Shippon Miah, who is in full kit and a club jacket.
Soon, Khan arrives, lugging heavy bags and boxes, preparing to help set up the concessions stand, and unloading replica shirts and matchday programmes ready to sell in a room under the main stand, which today, and I assume every match day, is a makeshift club shop. Khan’s daughters will later be behind the tills when fans come through the doors.
To say the chairman is ‘hands-on’ would be an understatement. Khan tells me about starting SOUL football club as a community initiative for local youths, transitioning to men’s football and Sunday League as the players inevitably got older, and then taking on the challenge of merging with Tower Hamlets FC to form the club he takes immense pride in today.
"We took that project on and we thought, okay, it's a massive challenge because from the jump from Sunday League to Saturday was huge," he admits.
"But we had the right personnel, the right attitude, the passion and obviously the aspiration to go further."
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Soul Tower Hamlets ahead of their FA Cup qualifying round match against Flackwell Heath-
Image credit: From Official Website
Promotion last season has given Khan and the club a hunger for more success, but he remains grounded as he quickly goes to take payment from some optimistic fans coming through the turnstiles while young Zak convinces me to buy a programme.
Khan then tells me about the club’s anti-knife crime campaign, which is incorporated into the design on the home shirt, and the climate campaign, which reflected in the away kit.
"Our ethos is that we are a football club, but we can make a change on other things as well, like knife crime, which is hurting this community quite bad because there's a lot of young people who are going astray and without the guidance.
"If we can make a positive impact on anyone's life, that's what we're going to do."
These values run through the club, with the management team of Spillane and John Field, echoing the chairman’s thoughts.
"You know this is a poor area," Spillane tells me. "Let's get it right. So, it's really important that clubs like ours offer an opportunity for local community kids."
Field then jumps in to emphasise how this crosses over with the football side of things: "Obviously we're here for the first team but when Tarik or the people from the committee says some young lads have come along [to training], I say, yeah, they're more than welcome."
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STHFC chairman Tarik Khan (left) oversees the concessions table being set up -
Image credit: Other Agency
These commitments are in no way at odds with the desire to succeed on the pitch however, as vice-chair Richard ‘Dickie’ Mayhew tells me.
"So the idea is obviously to build the club and the community and see if we can do a mini-Wrexham," he says, hoping to emulate the Welsh side's highly-publicised rise through the football league in recent years.
"The way it's going this year, our ambitions are hopefully we'd like to get to the play-offs at least and have a good cup run and then see where we go from there."
Khan is equally forward-thinking as far as the club’s future is concerned: "We are ambitious. We want to go as far as possible.
"We always say we're not here to make up the numbers, we wanna take it as far as we can."
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'The pitch looks like Wembley'
The backdrop of Mile End Stadium is very much a reflection of the club. Seated in the main stand, you can see a number of brutalist, high-rise blocks of flats of what is likely social housing.
But then angle your neck 90 degrees right, and you get the skyline of Canary Wharf, London’s representation of extreme wealth.
Khan and co. have no desire to desert their roots as a club, but upward mobility is certainly part of their M.O., and a historic cup run only serves to fuel that desire even further.
"It's the magic of the FA Cup," beams Khan before kick-off. "I always said it would be a dream for us to even playing the cup as a Sunday League team coming up. But to take it this far? Now we're like, let's take it far and then let's see how far it goes."
"Without a doubt", Spillane tells me firmly when I ask if it’s the biggest game in the club’s history.
The veteran manager previously took Redbridge to the second round proper but stresses to his players in the pre-match briefing not to ‘play the occasion’ by doing anything different to usual, something echoed by his managerial partner.
"Keep playing the same way," says Field. "Keep doing what we're asking them to do. We don't have to fix things at the minute cause nothings broken."
One person slightly more excited is vice-chair Mayhew, who has one specific prospective glamour tie on his mind.
"So, I said to John - I'm a Spurs man - I said, ‘if we get there, I'm gonna be signed on as a player and you're gonna bring me on to the last minute!’ He laughed. I went, ‘no, no, no, no. I’m dead serious!’"
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STHFC managers Terry Spillane and John Field give their pre-match team talk-
Image credit: Other Agency
I sit alongside Mayhew for the first half as he tells me which players to keep an eye on and about the growth of the club, before talk turns to our surroundings.
At my guesstimate, attendance is definitely in three figures, a far cry from days past according to Mayhew.
"I'm really pleased how it's all going at the moment," he says proudly. "You have to take you one step at a time. Now, when we first came, it was literally three of us, or eight of us watching and started to build gradually."
Earlier, I had run into Stefan, a ground-hopping football fanatic who had travelled all the way from Portsmouth to make Mile End Stadium his 327th venue to watch football, and explained that even though he wasn’t a SOUL supporter, he was intrigued by their story and potential surprise cup run.
"The pitch looks like Wembley." Mayhew then jokes as a few early passes bobble across the turf.
"For about a month of the year, normally about November, it's the best pitch in the league, but for the rest of the season, it's the worst.
"I think if you get Lionel Messi on it, he leaves the ball behind".
"And we do have invaders" he adds in reference to a couple of geese milling around behind the goal, something that many at the club are aware of.
"They won’t like goose s**t!" Spillane earlier told his players of the opposition, perhaps suggesting some sort of marginal gain for his side ahead of the match.
I’m inclined to believe that animal faeces didn’t play a part in the eventual outcome of the match as SOUL’s cup run came to an end.
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Soul Tower Hamlets play at Mile End Stadium in London-
Image credit: Other Agency
The disappointment is highlighted by heated words at full-time between team-mates Rian Patel and Sherman Artmeladze over an ultimately crucial squandered opportunity at 1-0.
"Don’t go in there!" young Zak, now in a security-slash-enforcer role, warns me as I approach the home changing room at full-time. Emotions are clearly still raw.
"I thought we was gonna win it! The competition. I thought we'd just go right the way through," Spillane tells me afterwards to lighten the mood. "Glad you find it funny!" he goads me.
Khan remains optimistic, and maintains this run is not a one-off for the club, and the FA Cup dream isn’t dead for SOUL.
"We'll be back next year," he says defiantly. "We'll be back, hopefully stronger. We hope to one day go further.
"I mean, this is this is the furthest any team in Tower Hamlets has gone so far, but next season the goal is to go a couple rounds more.
"We know the magic of the FA Cup is still around. It still exists. We will go for it next season again, and again, and again. We'll keep on trying."
With SOUL in FA Vase action next Saturday, and an unbeaten league start boosting hopes of a play-off push, Spillane is just as bullish about their prospects and convinced the club is heading in the right direction.
"I think that's a given," he says. "I think we are. I think it's fair to say that the people at the club are delighted with what we've done. We are and the team are.
"And it doesn't end here. We're still at the beginning of the journey."
On the FA Cup, he says with a smile, "We’ll win it next year!".
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