Hashtag United

Spencer Carmichael-Brown started out filming five-a-side kickabouts for a YouTube channel, and in March 2016 he turned that channel into an actual football club, entering it at the tenth tier of the English pyramid with a name already known to an online audience. The climb that followed was unusually fast: by the 2023–24 season Hashtag United were playing in the Isthmian League Premier Division, the seventh tier, having taken the Isthmian League North Division title in 2022–23.

The squad that got them there included Greg Halford, a defender with Premier League and Championship experience who signed in 2021 and stayed two seasons. That funding model caught up with the club in 2025–26, when Hashtag United asked to be voluntarily demoted back to the North Division, citing the cost of competing at the level they had reached. The men's team has rarely stayed put off the pitch either, moving grounds five times since 2018 before settling at Oakside Stadium, a 3,000-capacity ground in Barkingside.

The women's side has had its own run of success, taking the FA Women's National League Division One South East title in 2022–23 and the National League Cup the following season, along with a string of Essex Women's Cup wins. In cup football the men's team has twice pushed into the FA Trophy's later rounds, beating Brackley Town in 2024–25 before losing to Hampton & Richmond Borough, and lost an Isthmian League Cup final to Chatham Town in 2024.

Through all of it, the club Carmichael-Brown named after a hashtag has kept the YouTube channel that started it running alongside the fixtures.