Cray recovered from the disappointment of Tuesday night’s loss by coming from a goal down in the early second half to beat relegation threatened Barkingside.

Leigh Bremner rolled back the years with a clinically taken hat-trick (his first for Cray since scoring three at Leatherhead in August 2011), giving Cray an early lead before levelling for the Wands after the home side had turned the game on its head. Aryan Tajbakhsh’s cross-cum shot gave Cray the lead before Bremner completed his hat-trick and Ray Powell got in on the act with a fifth goal a couple of minutes from time.

The win was enough to move Cray into third place in the Ryman North as results elsewhere went for our way although fourth placed Harlow have two games in hand. The Wands win though was marred by an Achilles Tendon injury to Jacob Erskine before half time and we all wish Jacob a speedy recovery.

There were two changes to the starting lineup from Tuesday night with Jamie Mascoll coming in at left back and Leigh Bremner starting in place of Aryan Tajbakhsh and Karl Dent.

The game was played on a poor playing surface and the first half never reached any great heights as the match was extremely scrappy.

Barkingside though belied their lowly league position by starting the game the quicker and Michael Spencer had an attempt on goal in the opening minutes but was easily fielded by Nick Blue.

Cray though with their first real opening took the lead in the 7th minute with a strike of real quality from Bremner. Working the ball down the left Mascoll fed Bremner who turned and found space to curl home a tremendous strike from the edge of the penalty area giving Tyler McCarthy in goal no chance.

The Wands looked like they may run away with it at that point as James Duckworth cracked a shot which bounced back of an upright. For Barkingside, Jonathan Adebayo hit a strike which was just off target.

Cray came close to scoring again half way through the half when Bremner fired wide from ten yards from Jacob Erksine’s layoff. Then Erskine down the right put over a cross which flew through McCarthy’s hands but no-one could get on the end of it. For Barkingside again Spencer fired in a shot which Blue managed to hold on to at the second attempt.

The game then went through a particularly scrappy phase and Cray who had looked the better side to that point got a bit sloppy in their play and Barkingside and a ball into the box from George Lattaya was inviting and sailed into the box and was cleared for a corner.

In the 36th minute, the home side levelled when a free kick out on the right hand side was floated into the box by Adebayo to the far post and Blue couldn’t get there and the ball was turned in from close range by Andy Greenslade.

Cray were a little bit on the back foot before the break and were rocked when Erksine went down with an Achilles Tendon injury five minutes before half time and had to be stretchered from the field.

Jacob was replaced by Ray Powell as Cray looked to get to half time level but could easily have gone behind when Darren Foxley fired in a cross shot from the left which came back off the crossbar.

With practically the last kick of the half, a corner from Grant Basey from the right was headed over by Jay Leader.

Half Time: 1-1

It appeared at the start of the second half that Cray had still not shaken off the scrappy play of the first half and went behind in the 48th minute when Greenslade played a ball through to tall Luke With who from ten yards out fired home to give Barkingside the lead.

Cray had a let off when Greenslade couldn’t divert his header on goal from an Adebayo cross whilst Cray had a semblance of a chance when Powell got on the end of a cross and his header was pushed aside by McCarthy for a corner. Then a free kick from deep from Basey found Powell again but his header went into the side netting.

On the hour, Aryan Tajbakhsh came on for Duckworth and helped Cray to fight their way back into the game. Also Michael Frieter who had an unusually quiet game then started to find his range with good passing and Cray looked more dangerous going forward.

Cray levelled the scores twenty minutes into the second half when Tajbakhsh treaded the ball through to Bremner who raced on and tucked the ball home neatly before McCarthy could get to the ball.

At this stage the tide was turning and Barkingside captain, Paul Wright was replaced by Ola Kukoyi and defensively this seemed to unsettle the home side. However, Barkingside though were nothing but dogged and almost went straight back in front when a free kick from Alfie Wren was played into the right of the penalty area and Kukoyi got their first but his near post effort on goal was cleared off the line by Leader.

Cray went ahead in the 73rd minute following an award of a free kick 25 yards from goal. Basey’s shot was blocked but the ball came out to Tajbakhsh down the left hand side who put over a cross shot which deceived McCarthy possibly with his eye on Powell who was inside the box and sailed into the net.

From here Cray pretty much dominated the final stages and starting to come to terms with the pitch and Barkingside started to flag.

Sean Roberts played in Bremner who fired over from the edge of the box but in the 82nd minute completed his hat-trick with a typical clinical finish, This time Frieter’s ball forward caught out the Barkingside offside trap and Bremner ran on and tucked home a lovely finish wide of the keeper to make it 4-2.

Powell seemed determined to get on the scoresheet himself and in the closing minutes fired a shot straight at the keeper and then scuffed a shot wide.

However he didn’t have to wait long to score when Frieter once again finding space set up Bremer who laid the ball across to Powell whose initial shot was blocked but fired home the rebound to complete the scoring for the afternoon in the 88th minute.

Barkingside gave their all and Leon Smith’s persistence saw him forge an opening but dragged his shot wide.
This was the sort of game that Cray would just be happy to pick up the three points and in very difficult circumstances showed their qualities to come away with three points despite setbacks during the game.

Cray now go into the Easter games with a home match with Witham Town on Saturday (26th March) before travelling to Thurrock on Easter Monday.
Cray: Nick Blue, Adetayo Osifuwa, Grant Basey, Jay Leader, Jamie Mascoll, Lea Dawson (Capt.) (Jai McKinlay, 88), Sean Roberts, Leigh Bremner, Jacob Erskine (Ray Powell, 43), James Duckworth (Aryan Tajbakhsh, 60), Michael Frieter.

Subs: Karl Dent, Sam Faulkner

Barkingside: Tyler McCarthy, Jimmy Shepherd, Paul Wright (Capt.) (Ola Kukoyi, 68), Alfie Wren, Leon Smith, Darren Foxley, Andy Greenslade (Michael Ademiliu, 76), Jonathan Adebayo, Luke With, George Lataaya (Sam Kimmence, 85), Michael Spencer.

Subs: Jordan Wilson, Darren Mills.

Att: 74

Referee: Christopher Myatt
Assistants: Daniel Proctor, Zoltan Konkely