Cray Wanderers – 2019-20 season – That was the season that wasn’t – A Pictorial Review

Isthmian Premier – Game 12 – Saturday 19th October

Lewes                                                        2              Golding 23, Ilic 85
Cray Wanderers                                        3               Taylor 33, Nelson 45, Coker 50

Cray Wanderers second away successive away win and their first ever league win at Lewes moved the Wands up to 7th on a warm autumnal afternoon.

This was the last game in charge for Lewes boss Darren Freeman so added a bit more spice to the game. Unusually for a Cray match this season the game took a little while to get going and it was Lewes who went in front in the 23rd minute when James Hammond squeezed a pass through to Dayshonne Golding who slotted the Rooks in front.

 

This was the shake up Cray needed and dominated the remaining minutes of the half and drew level with a goal out of nothing when Charlie Allen played a ball down to Joe Taylor down the right and from an acute angle lofted the ball towards the top left corner beating the hand of Nathan Stroomberg-Clarke for his 15th goal of the season.

Ben Mundele had to go off with injury in the 38th minute but on the stroke of half time Cray went in front when a Karl Dent free kick was only half cleared out to Mitchell Nelson who struck a sweet shot into the net for his first goal of the season.

Five minutes after half time the Wands went 3-1 up when down the left, Taylor who had a tremendous game played the ball into the area to Andre Coker who got in front of Dent to score.

 

Cray had chances to score again through Taylor, Bradley Pritchard and the impressive Allen but Lewes made it a bit of a tense last five minutes when Jordy Mongoy’s shot was pushed out by ex-Rook Lewis Carey and Stefan Ilic tucked home the rebound.

Cray though saw out the remaining minutes and grabbed the win and kept the unbeaten run away from home ahead of Tuesday evening’s trip to Horsham and moved up to 7th place.

  

Cray Wanderers: Lewis Carey, Barney Williams (Capt.), Tom Carlse, Jay Leader, Mitchell Nelson, Charlie Allen, Bradley Pritchard, Karl Dent (Tom Phipp, 65), Ben Mundele (Tom Murphy, 38), Andre Coker, Joe Taylor: Subs: Jerome Federico, Lee Lewis, Geofrey Okonkwo

Att: 644

The Thoughts of Tony Russell

“I thought the Lewes game was a funny one really. The first ten/fifteen minutes we started slowly and then we took over and went 2-1 up and could have had a third. Then second half, JT down the left has squared the ball to Andre Coker and he’s tapped it in for 3-1. Andre has then gone through on goal and elected to shoot rather than pass to JT which would have been another goal.

We got a bit sloppy at the end with Lewes pulling a goal back which made the game look closer than it actually was. It was nice to learn after that it was the first time we’ve actually won down at Lewes especially on what was their manager Darren Freeman’s last game in charge which adds different emotions to the game but I thought the boys played well and deserved the three points”

Lewes vs Cray Wanderers – Pitchside Video  – A must watch away trip for Ozay and his video camera with assistance from Henderson Russell at the Dripping Pan.

LEAGUE RESULTS 19/10/19 & LEAGUE TABLE