Cray Wanderers are in Kent Senior Cup action on Wednesday as they take on 11 times winners of the competition Dartford at Hayes Lane.

Kick off is 7.45pm and will be played to a finish.

Cray got through the 1^st Round with a stylish 3-0 win at Thamesmead Town on 23^rd August and can look forward to a very competitive clash as always with the Darts.  This was Cray’s first win in Kent’s senior competition for six seasons.

The Wands come into the game on the back of their first league defeat of the season at Lewes where they didn’t get the rub of the green with the key decisions and were beaten 2-1 whilst finishing with nine men.

The match at the Dripping Pan was always going to be a hard one and victory there needs to be attained any way you can and Tony Russell’s side led 1-0 through Jay Leader’s first half header and seemed to be coasting along nicely.

Then in the 44^th minute Bradley Stevenson was sent off where a yellow card would have sufficed and then a contentious penalty for the home side before half time when the foul seemed to take place outside the area gave Lewes a chance to level and go on and win the match in the second half.  Mitchell Nelson also saw red near the end but nothing ever seems to go right for Cray at Lewes.

Defensively, Cray played well with Nick Blue having little to do and certainly the team cannot be faulted for effort and commitment.

Cray have been playing well in the league from the start of the season and will look to keep up the momentum against Tony Burman’s National South highflyers.

The teams met in the 1^st Round stage last season and Cray were unlucky to say the least not to win at Hayes Lane.  Ben Mundele gave Cray the lead and there were chances to improve on that before Dartford won the game second half with goals from Andy Pugh and Duane Ofori-Acheampong.

That was a Cray side with a number of young players and they certainly deserved to perhaps take the game to penalties against a Dartford side which was extremely strong.

Dartford have started the season in very impressive fashion and currently lead the Vanarama National South in a four way tie on 22 points with six wins from the opening 11 league games.  They were unbeaten in their first six before a Bank Holiday Monday defeat at home to East Thurrock brought that run to an end.

They are currently five unbeaten and got through the 2^nd Qualifying Round of the FA Cup at the weekend where they beat Barking 3-1 at Princes Park and now travel to Needham Market in the 3^rd Qualifying Round on 30^th September.  Leading scorer is Dartford legend Elliott Bradbrook with ten goals including a hat-trick in the FA Cup last Saturday.

There is an special relationship forged between the two teams as in 1993 with Dartford in dire financial straits and without a home were rescued from extinction by their supporters association when Cray Wanderers then at Oxford Road offered a ground share arrangement where they stayed until 1994-95 when they began a nomadic existence until moving back to Dartford at Princes Park in 2006.

Cray will have to play very well to win if the Dartford side is at full capacity but the Wands will certainly give it a go and should be a mouthwatering game between two good footballing sides.