Hashtag United Women beat their reserve team in a cup final. It says a lot about local investment

“The worst enemy you can meet will always be yourself,” wrote Friedrich Nietzsche in the early 1880s, and fitting of the 2026 BBC Essex Women’s Cup final, in which third-tier Hashtag United Women beat sixth-tier Hashtag United Women reserves 7-2.

Fans reading a copy of the match programme, featuring two Hashtag United club crests on its front page, might have felt a sense of deja vu owing to the 2024-25 quarter-final, when Hashtag’s first team beat the reserves 13-1. The team, founded by YouTuber Spencer Owen (real name Spencer Carmichael-Brown), whose YouTube channel Spencer FC boasts 1.93million subscribers, has a storied history in this competition.

A YouTube video on the Hashtag United Extra YouTube channel titled ‘If Both Teams Win…It’s a HASHTAG ONLY Final!’ has been viewed more than 20,000 times and chronicled the two semi-finals, played within half an hour of each other. Owen was at the reserve-team match but following the first team via a stream on his iPhone. For a club born of storytelling in the virtual world, they could not have asked for a better plot twist. “Hashtag will play Hashtag in the final,” went the commentary, “and in the background, there’s a double rainbow to signify just that. If that doesn’t get you subscribing, folks, I don’t know what will.”

Preparation for Thursday’s match-up presented some unique challenges. Hashtag’s reserves and first teams usually share a pitch, taking half each.

On Tuesday, the reserves had a quarter of the pitch, sharing it with the under-16s squad with which they work closely. “We actually hired a pitch on Friday away from them so that we could work on some things without them having eyes on us,” says manager Declan Murphy, who estimates he spends 10 to 20 hours a week managing the team on top of his full-time job and between ferrying his daughter to her matches for Arsenal and England Schools.

“After the final was confirmed, the reserves decided to do something that they’ve never done before the whole time I’ve been at Hashtag,” explains first-team captain Flo Jackson. “Even the girls who have been there for many seasons say this has never happened (before), but they decided to come and stand at the side and watch our session. I think it was a little bit of a mind game. It did put us on our toes a little bit. We thought, ‘What’s going on here’?”

“Some of our players maybe have wandered over during the drinks break and made sure they’re standing very, very close so that reserves can see that they’re watching — almost to say, ‘I’m going to put you under a bit of pressure here,’” says first team manager Dom Edwards. “But at the end of the day, it’s all good-natured.”

It is rare to know the opposition so intimately. Each side has access to the other’s entire archive of match footage. Reserve players have occasionally spent league games with the first team, albeit eligibility rules prevent them from playing for both teams in this cup. Murphy has managed players who have since graduated to the first team. Midfielder Emma Samways spent six months with the reserves while returning from an ACL injury.