Cray Wanderers Management team staying with the club and raring to go!!!
.Pics: Steve Cullum and Natalie Stribbling
If like me you get your mid morning news from the excellent Cray Wanderers FC Facebook, Instagram or X page you would have been greeted by the news that the Cray Wanderers management team led by Tim O’Shea have committed to the club for the 2026-27 season.
This is such an important piece of news as post-season can be a crucial time for clubs and management teams as the effects of a long season, maybe eyes turning elsewhere and other committments outside of football can lead to a little period of uncertainty.
I think that Tosh is an excellent manager that has built a great managerial team of trusted and dedicated individuals around him as no one person can do it all alone and the fact that the club have finished 10th and 7th in the last two seasons shows the guy knows what he is doing. Tim became manager intially in an interim capacity in March 2025 and the former Spurs, Orient and Gillingham player has definitely been a success especially last season as Cray were aside from the Folkestone Invicta defeat (every top manager has one of those in their locker) unbeaten away against the five sides that finished above them. He also has over 200 games on the bench with Cray and as previously assistant to Neil Smith helping Cray to the Isthmian Premier playoffs in 2022-23 and has refined Cray’s playing style to one that is so easy on the eye and attack minded probably honed from playing with the likes of Ossie Ardiles in the Spurs reserves.
Confirmed also is Mark Stimson as Assistant Manager. Perhaps the quiet man of the duo but hugely experienced and a former team mate of Tosh’s at Tottenham and also played as a pro at Newcastle United and Portsmouth. He also earned promotion as manager of Gillingham from League Two. Mark also won the FA Trophy as a player with Canvey Island and four times as manager at Grays (twice), Stevenage and Hornchurch so someone with great acumen to have alongside Tosh. Also I gather (but happy to be corrected) the best pre-match darts player on the bench.
Alfie George is an immensely talented and dedicated goalkeeping coach with his own school of keeping and came to Cray alongside Tosh and Smudger in March 2022 and been a loyal confidant at their sides. Goalkeepers these days can’t just be shot stoppers and stress relievers for the back four they have to be footballers too. Working with some top keepers at Cray and also with those bubbling under from the U23’s/18’s shows we have a top rank teacher for this vital part of the team.
However, what about the other major components for whom without these cogs in the machine thing might not tick as it should.
Roy Brooke is the Wands coach but more than that he is the eyes and ears at what is going on under the first team. Roy has been part of the successful Wands U18s sides for the last two or three seasons and the U23s who have taken the SCEFL Development League by storm. Producing those players that could be homegrown first team players that supporters love or those can head off to other clubs and make a successful career. Personally, I would like to see the likes of Corey Holden, Ellis Marsh, Oliver Chiriseri, Archie Morley and a few more of the U23s get some good pre-season friendly time and it is through Roy and his abilities that these players with the help of the Wands Youth team coaches are training and learning with the first team.
Ally Maloney is now a veteran of the physiotherapy world but for Cray Wanderers to have someone of her calibre with us is a major coup year in year out. Don’t get me started on the importance of the Club Physio as to me it is the most important role. The health and wellbeing of players is paramount and not just with tweaks and niggles after matches. During the match itself often and hopefully very rarely moment occur where her specialist training and quick thinking comes into play to prevent serious injury or to contact emergency services. Ally even had to take time out of match duties to assist a stricken supporter last season showing an incredible sense of care and dedication.
Finally a newcomer to the bench in 2025-26 but another important one, Kit Manager, Michelle Everitt has been a breath of fresh air assisting the club after initially being a supporter with this most dedicated and unglamorous side of the management team. The role of kit manager means being at the ground especially away matches often long before the players and management arrive, invariably with their own transport and boxes of kit, tapes and other requirements for the changing room. I’ve seen pro clubs kit teams that have large vans or small lorry to cart kit and equipment around that wouldn’t look out of place in a concert road crew. Michelle has brought the element of a supporter living the dream on the bench every game and her enthusiasm means the successes at the end of a match mean that much more.
So that is the team to get us going ahead of pre-season. You would think the next few weeks might be a time to chill but I would doubt it as their dedication means they are already plotting next season, new recruitment, working hard to keep players and waiting for new kit, replenishing first aid equipment and keeping things going.
Good luck to our managerial team and if the aim is to do better league position wise every season then we are looking next year as lowest sixth. Great ambition indeed.
