Cray Wanderers 2019-20 – That was the season that wasn’t – A pictorial review
FA Cup Preliminary Round – Sunday 25th August, 2019
Main Pics – Kind courtesy of Claire Jeffers
Cray Wanderers 5 Murphy 9, 39, Taylor 45+1, 90, Pritchard 63
Hythe Town 0
A break from the league action as incredibly Cray played the first of 3 successive FA Cup ties at home on a Sunday as Isthmian South-East Hythe Town were the visitors to Hayes Lane on by some distance the hottest day of the season.
Before the game Cray Wanderers co-captains Barney Williams and Mitchell Nelson handed a signed Wands shirt to Carl Newnham who after great service with the analysis work was heading to a dream role with Juventus out in the Middle East.
The game itself saw Cray comfortably make their way into the 1st Qualifying Round despite missing key players like Jay Leader, Tom Phipp, Tom Carlse, Andre Coker and Aaron Rhule.
Tom Murphy came to the fore here with two excellent goals, his first for the club with the opener on 9 minutes when Lee Lewis set up Murphy for a shot from 20 yards which went in off a post.
Hythe stuck in the game for large parts of the first half but Cray added a second with another cracking strike from Murphy who from a similar distance to the first fired home from Barney Williams set-up.
Just on half time it was 3-0 when Murphy, Lewis and Freddie Parker combined to set up Joe Taylor who cooly struck to in theory seal the game before the break.
The second half mood amongst the fans was concentrated on the 3rd Ashes test at Headingley and Ben Stokes heroics in helping England to a one wicket win. Once he had done that Cray scored two more goals.
In the 63rd minute, Murphy became provider when he played a superb pass through to Pritchard who marched through to score his first of the season.
Geofrey Okonkwo and Neil Spencer came on for the closing stages for their debuts and the scoring was completed in injury time with a second for Joe Taylor when he converted Spencer’s pass.
Cray would now advance to a home tie with Bedfont Sports in the 1st Qualifying Round.
Team: Carey, Williams, Hudson, Nelson (Okonkwo), Allen, Lewis, Pritchard, Federico (Spencer), Murphy (Etumnu), Parker, Taylor
Att: 240
Cray Wanderers co-captains Barney Williams and Mitchell Nelson present a signed shirt to coach Carl Newnham who was departing the club
for a dream role with Juventus out in the Middle East.
Team: Lewis Carey, Barney Williams, Harry Hudson, Mitchell Nelson (Geofrey Okonkwo), Charlie Allen, Lee Lewis, Bradley Pritchard,
Jerome Federico (Neil Spencer), Tom Murphy (Charles Etumnu), Freddie Parker, Joe Taylor
Att: 230
