December gets under way for Cray Wanderers with what promises to be a terrific contest at Carshalton Athletic on Saturday, 2nd December. The match pits the sides in third and fourth places in the Bostik South and two teams in excellent form.
Cray are unbeaten in eleven league games following their stylish 5-1 win against Ramsgate on Wednesday and moved up to fourth place on 37 points but with a couple of games in hand of the teams above them. Carshalton Athletic meanwhile had an excellent November picking up 16 points from their six games and moved to within four points of leaders Lewes and a point behind second placed Corinthian Casuals after beating Walton Casuals at Colston Avenue on Monday night and are unbeaten in seven games.
The Wands took a little while to get going on Wednesday against a young Ramsgate side but took the lead at the best time possible, right on half time with Michael Power’s stab over the line from Jay Leader’s header. Cray stepped up a few gears in the second half and Power grabbed his second hat-trick of the season taking his league tally to 12 and the season total to 21. Further goals from Mitchell Nelson, his third in four games and a classy finish from Aaron Rhule helped Cray to put the FA Trophy run which came to an end at Braintree out of their minds. There were some good performances with Zak Henry superb in midfield and Michael Frieter had in hand in four of the goals. Nick Blue also made two very fine saves at key moments of the game.
Tony Russell’s side have a tough December schedule with games against Hythe Town, Sittingbourne and Whyteleafe, all of whom have been in the top 10 for most of the season before we come to the Festive fixtures which include games against in form Faversham Town and Greenwich Borough so this is looking like a pivotal month of the season.
Carshalton Athletic a little like Cray haven’t been spoken about too much since the start of the season but Peter Adeniyi’s team made a good start to the campaign and were unbeaten in their first eight games through August-September. They had a bit of a wobble in October which saw four defeats but recovered well last month and have won their last six games in league and Surrey County cup. Home form has been very good with wins against Shoreham, 4-1, Faversham 2-1, Ashford United 4-2, Chipstead 2-1 and Walton Casuals 2-1. They picked up home points from draws with Hastings United, Phoenix Sports and Ramsgate and have been beaten just the once at home against Greenwich Borough in October. Away from home they won at Ashford, Corinthian Casuals, Chipstead, Horsham, Greenwich, Hythe and Thamesmead. They drew at Whyteleafe at the beginning of November and their only defeats came at Hastings United, Guernsey and East Grinstead Town. Their joint leading scorers are Raheem Sterling-Parker and Mikel Miller with 10 in the league but they are a high scoring side with 42 in 20 games with only Corinthian Casuals scoring more.
In the Cups, the Robins had a good run in the FA Cup reaching the 2nd Qualifying Round beating Walton & Hersham on penalties after a replay and Pagham before losing 3-4 at Eastbourne Borough. In the FA Trophy they were defeated at Heybridge Swifts 0-2 and were beaten at home by Dorking Wanderers in the Isthmian League Cup. They are still in the Surrey County Cup and beat Egham 6-2 to advance a couple of weeks ago.
Both managers share a footballing philosophy of attacking, innovative football and this has the makings of being a tremendous game.