Cray are on their travels again on Saturday as they make their first league visit of the season to Surrey and to Dorking Wanderers for a 3pm kick off at the Westhumble Community Stadium.  This will be the first ever meeting between the two Wanderers sides.

Cray come into the game unbeaten after five games, tenth in the table with nine points and travel to Dorking on the back of a hard earned point at Ramsgate on Tuesday night.  An exciting game finished 2-2 and could have gone either way in the second half after Karl Dent had given Cray a half time lead.  Lea Dawson’s deft header helped grab a point when the game seemed to be going against them after Ramsgate had gone ahead.  The game proved that this is going to be a tough league to get out of and nothing can be taken for granted.

Certainly for the first time this season, Tony Russell had to make a few changes to the side particularly with injuries to Nick Blue and Grant Basey meaning Max Huxter and Timi Osidobu came in and did very well in their absence.  There was another eyecatching performance from Brandon Scott who set up Dent’s goal and also came close to winning the game for Cray in the dying minutes.  It was also reassuring to see Ade Osifuwa back playing well down the right. 

Dorking Wanderers have made a good start to the season and their 2-0 win over Godalming on Tuesday moved them up to third place with four wins and one defeat from their five games.  Tom Duke’s side are a free scoring team with Matthew Briggs their leading scorer with five goals.

Dorking Wanderers are a different side to the one that Cray played in their early days in the Ryman League.  The Wanderers side in Dorking were formed in 1999 and over the last fifteen years have worked their way through the West Sussex Leagues and Sussex Senior Leagues to the Ryman South.  Last season was an excellent one for them as they finished second, albeit twenty four points behind champions Folkestone Invicta and despite defeat in the Playoff Semi Final at home to Faversham, it was a very positive first season for them.

This promises to be another exciting game between two good sides and one which could be well worth a visit.  Next season the football club are expected to move to a new stadium nearer the town so could be the only time the two teams play there.

Image courtesy of Keith Last