The first league meeting between Greenwich Borough and Cray Wanderers since 2005 ended in victory for the home side as three goals in a fifteen minute spell in the second half dented Cray’s promotion challenge and to make it two defeats in a row for Tony Russell’s side.

A cagey first half came alive just after the hour with Greenwich scoring two goals in two minutes before Lee Prescott fired Cray back into it in the 71^st but a third Borough goal two minutes later put paid to another Wands fightback.

Cray were looking to get back on track following the 2-4 defeat to East Grinstead last Saturday and made a couple of changes to the starting lineup with Dane Luchford filling in at right back for the injured Ben Mundele and Lee Prescott coming in for Sherwin Stanley.

Greenwich had lost their previous two league games and on a bright early Boxing Day afternoon the game started with the Wands looking slightly the brighter and were the first to get a shot in at goal when Karl Dent found Danny Haynes whose effort was safely gathered by Craig Holloway in the Borough goal.

The home side were more direct and posed a threat through Mohamed Eisa who hit a shot wide of goal.  Cray were awarded a free kick out on the right and Jey Siva’s ball in was glanced off target by Lea Dawson.

Both defences were playing well but it was Cray who had the best moment of the first half when Brandon Scott played a short pass to Haynes who cut inside and from the edge of the area fired in a shot which was tipped brilliantly round the post by Holloway with a one handed save.   From the corner to the back post Dawson directed his header off target.  This was followed by Haynes firing over and the Wands leading scorer looked the best player on the pitch at this stage of the game and looking threatening.

For Greenwich, Eisa wasn’t too far behind him and from a free kick on edge of the area, his strike was curled in and Nick Blue did well to turn the ball behind for a corner.  He then tested Blue with a low shot from Billy Dunn’s pass.

The game became bogged down in a bit of sparring for the last fifteen minutes of the half and the play got a bit disjointed.  The nearest anyone came to scoring was Cray and Haynes once again who from out of nothing worked an opening out on the right and fizzed in a shot which went just wide of the left post.

Greenwich before half time won a couple of corners and looked threatening from set plays and the Wands were perhaps happy at half time to go in at 0-0 and with so much to play for.

Half Time:  0-0

The second half began pretty much in the same vein as the first ended with Greenwich slightly in the ascendancy and started to get Dunn, Denness and Charlie MacDonald into the game.  Cray for their part had to make a change early in the half when Stanley replaced Scott who appeared to suffer a broken nose.

Chances were few and far between but Eisa’s ball into the area had to be cleared away for a corner and there was a feeling Cray were being pressed high up the pitch and weren’t really getting anything going in the forward areas at all.

The deadlock was broken in the 62^nd minute when Bradley Prichard who also had a good game hit a shot which Blue parried out but the ball could only go as far as MacDonald who lifted a shot into the net and the goal had been coming.

Two minutes later, Cray were unable to clear their lines sufficiently close to goal and Dunn stole the ball off Taiwo and crashed in a powerful shot into the roof of the net to make it 2-0 and give the Wands a mountain to climb.

Cray had to respond fairly quickly and in the 71^st minute did pull a goal back which owed much to the perseverance of Haynes who received the ball in midfield and with a jinking run to the right hand side put over a cross which found Prescott who found space and tucked home a smart finish wide of Holloway to give Cray hope of a revival.

Any hopes of this though were dashed in the 75^th minute when Greenwich were awarded a free kick out on the left, around twenty yards from goal.  Eisa curled in a ball into a crowded goal mouth which took the merest of touches off Rob Denness and diverted the ball into the net.

From here, Cray looked to get back in the game but an effort from Dent was blocked on the edge of the area but never really were able to test Holoway and the Wands slipped to  a defeat which moves them down to tenth in the League table.

Cray now need to get back to winning ways with a double header of home games starting with Ramsgate on Saturday and then Chatham Town on Monday in order to not lose sight of the playoff places.

Cray:   Nick Blue, Dane Luchford (Max Williams, 83), Jey Siva, Jay Leader, Paul Lorraine, Lea Dawson (Capt.), Sol Taiwo, Lee Prescott, Danny Haynes, Karl Dent (Timi Osidobu, 83), Brandon Scott (Sherwin Stanley, 55): Subs:  Jai McKinlay, Zak Henry

Booked:          Leader, Haynes, Luchford

Greenwich:  Craig Holloway, Nathan Paul, Glenn Wilson, Danny Young, Lewis Clark, Lewwis Spence (Liam Hickey, 30), Bradley Pritchard, Billy Dunn (Jake Britnell, 90+1), Charlie MacDonald, Rob Denness, Mohamed Eisa (Liam McDevitt, 87): Subs:  Peter Sweeney, Ryan-Khanye Makhosini  

Referee:          Isaac Searle

Assistants:     Jack Fagg, Jak Hill

 

Attendance:   312