Cray Wanderers are on the road on Saturday as they travel to Suffolk to face Bury Town at Ram Meadow. Kick off is 3pm.

Cray will be looking to bounce back from last Saturday’s home defeat to Dereham Town which coupled with Thurrock’s win’at Witham Town on Tuesday moved Cray out of the playoff places for the first time since the opening weeks of the season.

The league table has a more even look in terms of games played as most of the teams have now played their games in hand. Cray currently sit sixth in the table with 64 points level with fifth placed Cheshunt and behind on goal difference and three points ahead of seventh placed Brightlingsea.

Cray played some good football in the opening stages of the Dereham game but couldn’t find a way through and once they had gone behind came up against a resolute Magpies side and couldn’t find their way back.

There were some encouraging displays from on loan Jamie Mascoll and a debut for Tom Youngs. Certainly, Tony Russell has not been afraid to blood youngsters into the first team and it has been good to see the likes of Ade Osifuwa, Jack Lodge, Rees Deakin, Nathan Fox, Tom Youngs and loan players, Michael Frieter and now Mascoll get the chance to prove themselves and they have produced fine consistent displays.

The Wands face a difficult trip tomorrow against one of the pre-season promotion favourites, Bury Town. Town made a good start to the season following relegation following relegation from the Ryman Premier in 2014-15 and were unbeaten until early October. Ben Chenery’s side were in the title hunt until a poor December and January saw them lose seven games which dropped them down to mid table but are currently five games unbeaten but remain 9th in the table and are nine points behind Cray.

It was certainly an exciting game when the two sides met back in October at Hayes Lane in what was then a top of the table contest. Cray had Ben Payne sent off after ten minutes but took the lead through Omoni Sodje’s goal before falling 3-1 behind. A stirring Wands fightback saw goals from Mike Frieter and a Grant Basey penalty salvage a 3-3 draw.

Cray will have to show that tenacity and spirit tomorrow against a strong team but generally Cray’s performances away from home have been decent and should be a very good game of football tomorrow, one which Cray will look to get the show back on the road and keep in the playoff hunt.