Cray Wanderers vs. Brentwood Town – Isthmian Premier – Monday 25th August, 3 pm – Match Preview
Cray Wanderers play the second of a Bank Holiday Double Header on Monday as the Wands welcome the Isthmian North Champions, Brentwood Town to Flamingo Park for the first time in a match pitting two unbeaten sides after four games.
Cray after the resilient and ultimately merited win at Billericay Town on Saturday, the Wands confidence will be high and stand 3rd in the league table with ten points.
Certainly Cray had to do things the hard way in Essex as after a solid enough performance in the first half ended goalless, five minutes after half time Quade Taylor was sent off which left Cray having to regroup. As it turned out Cray upped the gears and won the game with a 72nd minute goal as Frankie Raymond’s free kick was headed into the net by Chris Dickson for his second goal of the season.
The Wands signed Jamie Watson as defensive cover from Tonbridge following the injury to Remi Sutton but was called upon to do a job in the last forty odd minutes and alongside Tom Bonner and full backs Prosper Keto and Adrian Owiredu-Gyamera who came on for Frankie Morgan before half time restricted Billericay to few chances. When they did get through they found Harry Seaden in great and assured form in goal. With the front three of Ashley Nzala, Chris Dickson and Josh Williams working hard and Lateef Adaja when he came on it was a solid team effort and one which showed the resilience in the side.
Cray though will have to be on their toes on Monday as Brentwood Town are also unbeaten after four games, also on ten points and have been one the league’s entertaining sides with wins of 4-3, 3-2 and 2-1 in the last three matches. They began the season with a 1-1 draw at Aveley which was followed by a 3-2 win against one of the league’s fancied sides, St. Albans City. On 16th August, Brentwood won 4-3 at Potters Bar Town after being behind early in the game with last season’s top scorer Daniel Ogunleye scoring twice.
On Saturday, Brentwood also came from behind to beat another of the promoted sides, Burgess Hill Town 2-1 at home with goals from Matthew Cripps and Kymani Thomas. In the FA Cup next Saturday, Brentwood will be at home to Leighton Town. Leading scorer so far is Louie Johnson with three goals.
Brentwood Town, managed by former West Ham, QPR and Northern Ireland International, Keith Rowland earned promotion back to the Isthmian Premier after a ten season absence finishing top of the Isthmian North by four points from Felixstowe & Walton and Bury Town. Their final home game of the season, a 4-0 win against Basildon United was played in front of a crowd of 1.467 and return to the Isthmian top flight.
The teams met in the 3rd Qualifying Round of the FA Trophy last season at the Brentwood Arena with the match finishing 1-1 after 90 minutes. Connor Witherspoon put Brentwood in front but Lateef Adaja levelled in the second half. Brentwood though won 4-3 on penalties and ended up having a great run in the competition beating Cray Valley PM and Hereford United before losing at home to Southend United in the 3rd Round.
There haven’t been too many league games between the teams. The Wands back in the Metropolitan League days of mid to late 60’s played Brentwood Town during the 1966-67 season. Brentwood won 7-1 at home but Cray won 1-0 at Grassmeade with a Barry Diggins goal. Brentwood went semi-pro and the first team moved up to the Southern League but Cray played Brentwood reserves for three seasons.
The only previous Isthmian League meetings came in the 2014-15 season in the Isthmian North. The games were high scoring with a 3-3 draw at Brentwood Town before Cray lost 3-2 at Hayes Lane early in Tommy Warrilow’s time in charge with goals from Adrian Stone and Moses Ashikodi. Brentwood Town were promoted that season via the playoffs and the teams moved in different directions.
This should be one of the games of the day on a Bank Holiday Monday as the Summer Holiday’s begin to wind down for another year and two teams beginning the season with confidence and in fine fettle.
Admission £15 adults, £10 concessions, £5 u16-u13s, U12s free. Please note the promotional offer above for any Cray Wanderers, Premier League or EFL season ticket holder, a friend can gain free entry to the game. There is a printed match programme £3 available from the turnstile, merchandise, hot and cold food and drinks, bars with 15% off beers between 12-2 pm and large screen at the Sun Terrace end.
The Pre-Match Thoughts of Tim O’Shea
Cray Wanderers face Brentwood Town on Bank Holiday Monday in a clash of two unbeaten sides in the top 5 and promises to be one of the games of the day in the Isthmian Premier. Here Tim O’Shea in conversation with Radio Wands Luca Viscogliosi reflects on the excellent three points at Billericay Town on Saturday acquired in adversity and looks ahead to the Brentwood challenge.
Hello Tosh. Cray Wanderers produced a great performance to beat Billericay Town 1-0 on 23rd August, I would suggest you will look back at the end of the season that this was a priceless three points.
It was indeed. If you ever question the changing room about character on Saturday they showed it in abundance. To go down to ten men within two minutes in the second half and then not just to sit back and take a draw, the boys just want to win games. Fair play to young Dicko in the right place at the right time and did what he does. What is it he says! Goals Never Done.
Going into half time at 0-0 I felt we had rode our luck slightly but before Quade’s red card what was the initial message at half time?
To be fair I want to encourage the boys to back themselves against the opposition in regards to your immediate opposition and I just felt we just had players like Frankie Morgan dropping into areas where the centre-halves should be going in challenging headers. I know Frankie Merrifield won a few headers which gave us some problems from goal kicks. I think once we got to that although the red card for Quade put that out of the equation we had a bit more structure in the second more than the first.
For Dicko’s goal as you say he was in the right place at the right time but for a 40 year old but what a leap and a header for the goal! I felt for the next ten minutes or so it seemed to spur us on and even with ten men we restricted Billericay to seemingly minimal chances to trouble Harry Seaden second half.
I’d just like to correct you, Dicko is 40 years young as he won’t let you say anything else. Listen, when you are down to ten men and you score a goal, that does seem to give you another ten-fifteen percent of running capacity and I think had that. Fair play to the likes of Adrian who came on at left back, he had been fantastic pre-season and a great man and player for the squad. Jamie Watson came on and it was a tough game to come into and had only trained with us on Tuesday and Thursday so he has done well. Everyone to a man really dug deep and apart from set pieces when they brought on the likes of Riley Scott and Tyrese Owen all six foot plus you think let’s try and stay strong. Harry though came for everything and helped us over the line.
Just a mention for Frankie Morgan having to come off. The squad isn’t the biggest so to have two defensive blows in the space of seven days and a short turnaround after getting through a whole half with ten men isn’t great. Does it look serious for Frankie?
Certainly I would say doubtful for Monday. I hope he woke up on Sunday as he is a game boy and would like to play Monday but we will have to have a look at it but otherwise we could have him back for Saturday. Frankie has been another great addition and I cannot speak highly enough but another player who did well at Billericay who seems to go under the radar is PK (Prosper Keto). He handled that right hand side very well, won his headers and tackles but overall everyone was on form.
Finally let’s look ahead to Monday and Brentwood Town who came up last season and they have ten points from four games as well. Maybe not the game you would want another a tough game on Saturday but I’m sure we will approach it in the right mindset and try and get a good result.
Without a doubt, if you look at it from a points per ratio we’ve now got ten and we have a game on Monday which makes it five games. So with the squad being a bit thin and patching up and stuff we go again. The players will all dig in no doubt about it. Whatever way you look at it the worst case scenario you have played five games and you have ten points so you must be doing something right. That’s not saying we don’t go into every game looking to win but we will give it our best shot.
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DIRECTIONS TO FLAMINGO PARK FOR NEWCOMERS
Flamingo Park Sports & Leisure – Sidcup By-Pass, Chislehurst, Kent BR7 6HL
Flamingo Park lies on the A20 and is the new home of Cray Wanderers and used for the Men and Women’s First Team, U23s, Youth Team games, Academy side and the club house hosts live music and private events. For the 2024-25 season Bexley FC will also play their Kent County League Premier games at Flamingo Park.
By car
From Kent – Via M20 or A2
M20 – Follow the M20 for 16.8 miles then continue on to A20 for 3.6 miles then continue on to Sidcup By-Pass Road/A20 for 1.9 miles. Continue onto Sidcup By-Pass/A20 for 0.3 miles then take a left into the ground entrance and another left for the car park.
A2 – Get on the M2 from A229 for 5.1 miles. After merging onto the M2 after 5.5 miles continue onto Watling Street/A2 for 8.7 miles. Use the left lane to take the M25 (S) slip road to M23 for 0.7 miles. Merge onto the M25 for 2.4 miles then at junction 3, exit towards A20/London (SE)/Swanley for 0.3 miles. At the Swanley interchange, take the 5th exit onto the A20 slip road to London (SE)/Lewisham for 0.8 miles. Merge onto the A20 for 3.5 miles then continue onto Sidcup By-Pass Road/A20 for 1.9 miles. Continue onto Sidcup By-Pass/A20 for 0.3 miles then take a left into the ground entrance and another left for the car park.
From London, North & West
Via A20 – If traveling from London take A3212, A302 and Westminster Bridge Road and at the roundabout take the 3rd exit onto St. George’s Circus/A201 and after 0.3 miles turn left onto New Kent Road/A201 for 0.5 miles. Then keep right staying on New Kent Road/A201 for 0.4 miles and then onto Old Kent Road/A2 for 2.6 miles. Take a slight right onto Amersham Road/A2/A20 then a left onto Amersham Road/A20 for 0.2 miles. Take a slight right onto Lewisham Way/A20 for 1.1 miles and then use the left 3 lanes to turn left onto Rennell Street/A20 for 1.9 miles. Use the right 2 lanes to turn slightly onto Sidcup Road/A20 for 0.3 miles then at the roundabout take the 2nd exit and stay on Sidcup Road/A20 for 3.7 miles. Then take the A222 towards Bromley/Chislehurst/Sidcup for 0.2 miles then at Frognal Corner Roundabout take the 4th exit onto the A20 slip road to C. London/Lewisham for 0.3 miles. Then merge onto the Sidcup By-Pass Road/A20 for 0.6 miles and then onto the Sidcup By-Pass for 0.3 miles. Then take a left into the entrance to the ground and another left into the car park.
From Essex/East Anglia
Via A13 – If traveling from Essex/East Anglia get onto the A13 for 11.6 miles. Use the left lane to take the M25 (N)/M25 (S) slip road to M11/M1/Stansted Airport/Dartford Crossing/A282 for 0.2 miles. At Mardyke Junction take the 1st exit for 0.3 miles and then use the right lane to take the A282 slip road to M25 (S)/Dartford Crossing then keep right at the fork to continue towards A282 for 3.8 miles. Use the right 3 lanes to stay on A282 then follow signs for M20/M23/Gatwick Airport /M25/Channel Tunnel/Dover for 0.6 miles. Continue onto M25 (signs for Dover/M20/Channel Tunnel/M23 for 3.3 miles. At junction 3 exit towards A20/London (SE)/Swanley for 0.3 miles and at Swanley Interchange take the 5th exit onto the A20 slip road to London (SE)/Lewisham for 0.8 miles. Then merge onto the A20 for 3.5 miles, continue onto Sidcup By-Pass Rd/A20 for 1.9 miles and then continue onto the Sidcup By-Pass for 0.3 miles then turn left into the entrance to the ground and then a left into the car park.
From: Sussex/South
If traveling from Sussex/South best get on Hastings Road/Pembury By-Pass/A21 in Kent from A267 and after 9.4 miles continue straight onto Sevenoaks Bypass/A21 for 3.8 miles and then keep right to continue onto M25. After 7.9 miles at junction 3 use the left 2 lanes to take the A20 exit to London/Lewisham/Channel Tunnel/Maidstone/M20 for 0.3 miles. At Swanley Interchange take the 2nd exit onto the A20 slip road to London (SE)/Lewisham for 0.5 miles. Merge onto the A20 for 3.5 miles, continue onto Sidcup By-Pass Rd/A20 for 1.9 miles and then continue onto the Sidcup By-Pass for 0.3 miles then turn left into the entrance to the ground and then a left into the car park.
The Car Park is free for supporters and there should be space between 400 cars on site. Please note bays in front of the main entrance are reserved for club officials.
By Train – Nearest BR Station – New Eltham – 1 mile. Trains from London Charing Cross/London Cannon Street/London Bridge or from Dartford/Gravesend. There are four trains an hour heading to New Eltham from London Charing Cross. For returns there are also four trains back to London.
From the station walk south-east onto Foots Cray Road/A211 for 0.3 miles then turn right onto Thaxted Road for 0.2 miles. Then turn left towards Sidcup Road/A20 and cross over the pedestrian footbridge and take a sharp and then a slight right towards Sidcup Road/A20 for 0.4 miles and then turn right and then a left into the entrance to the ground.
By Bus – The best bet is to get the 233 from Swanley, Sidcup, Eltham or New Eltham which stops on Thaxted Road but is around 0.8 miles to the ground. From Chislehurst station the 162 bus which starts in Bromley stops on Slades Drive where you can access the public footpath opposite the bus stop and is around a ten minute walk to the ground. This bus also stops at New Eltham Station for your return journey.
TAXIS – TAXIS – ALL DAY CARS – NEW ELTHAM – 020 8850 0032
Nearest Hotel: Premier Inn London Eltham
738 Sidcup Road, Eltham, London
SE9 3NS
Sat Nav Directions:SE9 3TJ
Directions:
From South Circular Road, take A20 Sidcup Bypass until you reach Fiveways, where Sidcup Road meets Green Lane Premier Inn Eltham is situated on the corner and the entrance to the car park is on Green Lane.
https://www.premierinn.com/gb/en/hotels/england/greater-london/london/london-eltham.html
The Car Park is free for supporters and there should be space between 700-800 cars on site. Please note bays in front of the main entrance are reserved for club officials.
Close to New Eltham Station are the Beehive pub plus the Pope Street Bar & Kitchen and the Nest offers hot drinks/alcoholic drinks and live music. There are also places to eat and a wide range of takeaway outlets as well as Fish & Chip and a Pie & Mash shop. Alternatively if you travel from Sidcup there are a wide range of pubs to choose from.
