League action takes a break for the Buildbase FA Trophy for Cray Wanderers on Saturday as Grays Athletic travel to Hayes Lane for a 1st Qualifying Round tie. Kick off is 3pm. 
If the tie ends in a draw, the replay will take place at Grays (Aveley FC) on Wednesday, 1st November.
It is unusual for Cray to take on a former winner of the FA Trophy at this stage of the competition but Grays won the trophy back to back in 2005 and 2006 whilst in the Conference South and National.
Cray made it nine games unbeaten in the league on Tuesday night after a hard fought and raw goalless draw at second placed Sittingbourne. Two very good defences meant chances were at a premium with Cray twice hitting the crossbar through Aaron Rhule and Lea Dawson but a draw was the fairest outcome on the night.
Defensively, Cray were excellent as they have been all season and out of seven away games in the league have conceded two goals both at Lewes and one of those was a penalty. Jay Leader and Mitchell Nelson were rock like throughout and Dean Carpenter, Lea Dawson and Zak Henry had an element of control of the midfield. As Tony Russell pointed out after the game, perhaps in the final third Cray were lacking that bit of sharpness but a point away at Sittingbourne following the 1-0 win at Thamesmead last Saturday is a decent 4 point haul from two tough away trips.
Inevitably, there has been much talk about the skirmish at the end of the game following the red cards and as Tony said didn’t reflect the teams in a good light but sometimes these things happen in a competitive atmosphere especially with so much at stake in the game. Perhaps the good thing to come out of it is that there isn’t long to wait until the teams play again at Hayes Lane on 15th November and both sides will be looking to generate headlines for the right reasons on that occasion.
The Wands will be hoping to maintain their good home form in October which has seen three wins in league and cup and 15 goals scored. It would be too hard to expect a repeat of the Preliminary Round tie where Cray hit eight goals without reply against Horsham where everything went well for Cray that afternoon. Jamie Stuart’s Grays Athletic side come to Hayes Lane in decent form themselves after a sticky league spell in September and are unbeaten in their last four Bostik North matches and came close on Wednesday night to ending Haringey Borough’s unbeaten record drawing 3-3 after leading 3-1 with a couple of minutes to go.
Grays were relegated from the Isthmian Premier last season and began in the Bostik North as tenants of Aveley FC’s new Parkside ground. They began with a 2-1 win at Tilbury but then won only one of their next ten league games. In the Preliminary Round of the FA Trophy Grays defeated Norwich United 4-3 at home and since then their league form picked up with just one defeat and then wins at Ware (5-0), at home to Bowers & Pitsea and Tilbury before picking up that point with Haringey moving them up to 12th in the table with 17 points. Leading scorer is Kieran Bishop with 6 league goals. Away from home they won at Tilbury and Ware, drew at AFC Hornchurch and were beaten at Waltham Abbey, Barking, Bowers & Pitsea, and Hertford Town.
In the FA Cup they defeated Redbridge 2-0 at home in the Preliminary Round before losing at home to Hertford Town after a replay. In the Isthmian League Cup they won 2-0 at Bowers & Pitsea and travel to Hendon in the 2nd Round on Tuesday night.
This should be a tremendous cup tie much in keeping with many of the games at Hayes Lane this season and one Cray will have to be at their very best to win.