On a chilly night, Cray Valley PM and Lancing shared the points in a competitive Isthmian League South East match. 

During the early stages the Lancers struggled to contain the lively Cray side and Kyrell Lisbie’s shot beat goalkeeper Louis Rogers but Jack Meeres was on hand to hack off the line.

Lisbie’s pace again threatened to undo the visitors and Alex Laing took one for the team when chopping him down and being shown a yellow card.

Barney Williams created the next opportunity when delivering a corner that Cem Tumkaya headed over when well placed then Denzel Gayle rattled the bar when cutting in and letting fly with a shot that took a slight deflection. 

Danny Waldren had a shot blocked into the path of Clement Asiedu whose long range shot went wide then Lisbie crossed for Matt Vigor who was unable to keep his header down and it flew over.

As half time approached, the visitors almost went ahead against the run of play. George Taggart’s shot came back out off the post and Ben Pope bundled the rebound home only to see the assistant’s flag up for offside.

There was still time for the Millers to have one last chance before the interval when Waldren met Williams’ cross with a clean header that drew an excellent save out of Rogers who pushed it onto the post and away.

After the break Calvin Ekpiteta surged through but shot straight at Rogers, then Lisbie shot wide after good work by Marcel Barrington.

Despite having had the better of things, Cray went behind nine minutes after the restart when from Laing’s through ball, Charlie Pitcher, who had just come on as a substitute, slotted home via the far post.

Ekpiteta hit a superb cross field pass to Gayle but Rogers made a comfortable save from his low shot as the Miller looked for a quick response.

Steve McKimm, the Cray manager, then brought on birthday boy Lyle Della-Verde, and within two minutes, the Millers were level. Della-Verde delivered a free kick from out wide and Tumkaya rose to power his header home.

Della-Verde then had a chance to put Cray ahead. Lisbie was brought down in the penalty area by a rash challenge by Meeres. The Millers substitute stepped up and struck his shot against the post. It came back out to him and he fired home but nobody else had touched it and it was disallowed.

Lukas Franzen-Jones had a great chance to put the Lancers ahead but hooked his effort too straight allowing Max Ovenden to tip it over then, from the corner Charlie Gibson knocked it down to Sam Bull who pulled it wide.

Gayle cut in from the right for Cray and his low shot was kept out by the feet of Rogers then Vigor fired well over after a knock down by Della-Verde.

Tumkaya’s diving header from another Della-Verde corner flew wide before Michael Ademiluyi eased in from the right and hit a low shot through a crowd of legs that Rogers got down to make an outstanding save.

One last chance came and went for Cray when Waldren headed over from a Williams cross.

Cray remain unbeaten and second in the league but are eight points behind leaders Ramsgate with two games in hand. The point for Lancing moved them one place up to fourth in the league and the two teams meet again later in January.

Cray Valley PM: Ovenden, Williams, Asiedu, Waldren, Oshilaja, Tumkaya, Gayle, Vigor, Barrington, Ekpiteta (Della-Verde 59), Lisbie (Ademiluyi 78).

Subs not used: Chambers, Ibrahiym,, Wicks.

Goalscorers: Tumkaya (64)

Yellow cards: Moore (Coach)

Lancing: Rogers, Laing, Gibson, Briggs, Meeres, Bull, Scott (Howick 58), Bennett, Pope (Pitcher 52), Taggart, Franzen-Jones (Jenks 86).

Subs not used: Plummer, Heath. 

Goal scorers: Pitcher (54)

Yellow cards: Laing, Pitcher

Referee: Tommy Breen

Assistants: James Latham and David Smith

Attendance: 140

Pictures supplied by Dave Budden.