Cray Wanderers vs Crystal Palace XI
PSF – 12/7/25
Cray Wanderers 1
Williams 2 mins
Crystal Palace XI 1
Brownlie 38
Photos to follow
Cray Wanderers second pre-season game ended honours even as Tim O’Shea’s side drew with a young Crystal Palace side at Flamingo Park.
At this stage of pre-season it is all about getting minutes in the players legs and the second half saw a mostly U23s based side with the average age of the players 19.2 years of age.
From the side which beat Beckenham Town last Saturday Frankie Morgan made his first start while Prosper Keto who was a trialist for the first game has since signed and played at right back. Two other trialists featured, one at the back and one in midfield and three in the second half. Cray were without Luke Allen, Alex Hernandez and Tom Bonner but also started Tyrese Briscoe, a scorer against Beckenham Town.
Against a Palace Academy side Cray got off to a quick start and came close in the 2nd minute when Nods Bobomurodov put a pass through to Ashley Nzala down the left of the area who turned in the box and saw his low shot pushed out by Jack Mason. However, from the save the ball came to Josh Williams down the right of the area who fired into the net.
Cray came close moments later to adding a second as Nzala worked an opening down the left and his ball across was met by the head of Remi Sutton but Mason did superbly to make an instinctive push out save.
Palace meanwhile looked to threaten down the right and Donte Martin cut inside and hit a daisy cutter shot which Harry Seaden did well to get down to save.
In the 25th minute Williams did well to win the ball down the right and then hit a shot from outside the box which was well fielded by Mason.
For Palace, Martin was put through on goal but Seaden did well to get to the ball to gather the ball.
In the 38th minute Palace levelled when from a free kick down the left the ball in the box fell to Rylan Brownlie who headed the ball in from close range.
Before the break Nzala saw a shot blocked by Charlie Walker-Smith but at the interval the teams went in level.
HT: 1-1
The second half was a much more sedate affair but the Wands team with the exception of Seaden at the start, a midfield trialist and Lateef Adaja resembled the U23s team and certainly there was no indication on which team was the full time trained and Cray restricted Palace to no chances.
Chances overall were few and far between with both teams enjoying good spells of possession.
Cray had a half chance from a corner with the trialist no 17 heading over the top. From there it was a quiet affair with Cray threatening with the trialist no 8 firing well over.
Then from a free kick George Brooke saw an effort come back off the wall and the trialist no 20 saw a shot blocked.
The best chance of the half fell to Cray in the 83rd minute which was made in the Cray Academy as Freddie Warwick played a ball out to Brooke down the left and his ball into the box was fired over first time by Tom Borders and would have been a great goal.
On a hot afternoon both teams were pacing themselves well and in the end the game ended in a draw although there was a little concern for the Wands Michael Ihiedi who had to go off late on with an injury.
Overall this was a good workout for Cray and there were only really positives to come out of the game. Again one or two trialists did themselves no harm and Nzala and Williams up front looked a potent pairing down the left and right and Bobomurodov impressed with his passing.
A similar type of game is expected for the next pre-season game on Friday, 18th July as Cray take on a Bromley XI at Flamingo Park, 7.45 pm ko.
Cray Wanderers: Harry Seaden, Prosper Keto, Trialist A, Remi Sutton, Frankie Morgan, Frankie Raymond, Trialist C, Nods Bobomurodov, Ashley Nzala, Josh Williams, Tyrese Briscoe: Subs: Kevin Kardel, Trialist B, Bobby Parkes, Trialist D, George Brooke, Freddie Warwick, Lateef Adaja, Trialist E, Michael Ihiedi, Tom Borders
Crystal Palace: Starters: Jack Mason, Sean Somade, David Angibeaud, Joel Drakes-Thomas, Jacob Fasida, Donte Martin, Ajean Greaves, Makai Bernard-Ferguson, Rylan Brownlie, Kai Adams- Collman, Matteo Dashi: Subs: Luca Bennetton, Benji Casey, Charlie Walker-Smith, Euan Danaher, Chuks Okoli, Jasper Judd, Jayden McDonald, Aidan Morgan, Daniel Owade, Khyan Fraser-Williams, Hugo Bull, Kairo Smith-Phillips.
Referee: Jake Woodman
Assistants: Ben Al-Sheikh, Dane Johnson
Att: 375
