Sunday sees Cray Wanderers begin their FA Trophy campaign for the season with a home game against Carshalton Athletic in the Preliminary Round. Kick off at Hayes Lane is 3pm.

The FA Trophy is the premier cup competition for Non-League clubs with a lucrative final at Wembley in May, last season won by FC Halifax Town.

This will be the first ever cup meeting between the two sides and both teams have played some excellent football in the early weeks of the season so this should be a great game.

The Wands emerged from their Kent Senior Cup tie with Dartford on Wednesday with enormous credit and a much changed side ran the holders close and were perhaps a tad unfortunate not to have taken the game to penalties.

Tony Russell can take some very positive aspects out of the game despite the defeat with the performances from some very young players and the likes of Timi Osidobu, Jai McKinlay, Max Williams, Edgar Morais, Ben Mundele, Brandon Scott and Joel Massamba would have benefited hugely from playing in such a good game and running the Darts so close.

A more established Cray line up should face Carshalton but there were injuries to Sean Roberts and Ade Osifuwa on Wednesday night so we await to hear of their fitness.

This unusually is the first of two (or possibly three, depending on a replay) with the Robins in a week as the two sides meet in the league on Saturday, also at Hayes Lane. Carshalton under the player-management of Peter Adeniyi have started the season very well and victory at Herne Bay on Tuesday night moved them one place above Cray into sixth place in the league. They are a pretty free scoring side and Tommy Bradford and Ricky Korboa have each scored nine goals putting them both joint second in the leading scorer’s charts, two behind current leader, Hythe Town’s Alfie May.
Since our last league meeting with Carshalton back in January 2014 in the Ryman Premier both sides were relegated at the end of the 2013-14 season and last season, the Robins finished 10th in the Ryman South.

Both teams have had good runs in the FA Trophy in recent years. In 2011-12 Carshalton reached the last 16 of the competition beating Lincoln City en route before losing at eventual finalists Newport County. Cray equalled their best run to the 3rd Qualifying Round in 2014-15. The winners of this tie will be at home to either Brentwood Town or Marlow Town on 29th October.

There always seems to be a special atmosphere at Sunday games at Hayes Lane and with Cray and Carshalton scoring fifty goals between them over the opening weeks of the season, an exciting cup tie is anticipated.

Should the game end in a draw on Sunday then the scheduled league game at Herne Bay on Tuesday, 11th October will in all likelihood be replaced by a replay at Colston Avenue. We will know by Sunday whether Herne Bay face a replay from their tie at Barton Rovers which could also impact upon the game.

Admission on Sunday is £10.00 adults, £4.00 concessions/Under 16’s. Season tickets are not valid for the FA Trophy.