Cray Wanderers continue their FA Cup adventure on Saturday as Tony Russell’s side travel to Haringey Borough in the 3^rd Qualifying Round.  Kick off at CVS Van Hire Stadium is 3pm.

This is the first ever FA Cup meeting with Haringey Borough although the sides have met in other cup competitions down the years. 

The teams also met as recently as 14^th September when the Isthmian Premier league game at Hayes Lane ended in a 1-1 draw with Joe Taylor’s second half penalty cancelling out a Dimitri Froxylias first half strike. Cray were denied the three points by an inspired goalkeeping display from Valery Pajetat. 

Should the game be drawn it is expected that the replay will take place next Wednesday, 9^th October at Hayes Lane.

Cray come into the game in decent form and are unbeaten in ten league and cup matches and this was extended on Wednesday night as a powerful passage of first half play saw three goals in eleven minutes from Andre Coker, Joe Taylor – his twelfth goal of the season – and Tom Carlse notched his first of the campaign before the 31^st minute to defeat Bowers & Pitsea. Despite a Bowers rally in the second half Cray held on to the win to move up to ninth in the league table with 14 points from the 9 games played.

The Wands have advanced to the 3^rd Qualifying Round for the sixth time in their history and the first since 2012-13.  Cray will be looking to make it through to the 4^th and final Qualifying round for only the second time and the first since 2005-06.

Cray have made it three early rounds, all home draws against step 4 sides scoring 12 goals along the way.  In the Preliminary Round, Cray won 5-0 against Hythe Town (Tom Murphy (2), Taylor (2) & Bradley Pritchard) and then followed that up beating Bedfont Sports, 2-1 (Lee Lewis & Taylor).  In the 2^nd Qualifying Round the Wands beat Soham Town Rangers, with Taylor scoring a hat-trick and goals from Harry Hudson and Murphy.

This will be a tough game though for Cray against a Haringey Borough side which last season reached the 1^st Round Proper of the FA Cup where they were only beaten by a late AFC Wimbledon goal.  They too have made it through with the bare minimum of fuss winning two home games beating Herne Bay (3-0) and then won impressively 5-0 against Staines Town with a hat-trick from Chidubem Onokwai and goals from Rakim Richards and Froxylias.

Tom Loizou’s side have made a decent start to the Isthmian Premier division season and are 5^th in the table with 16 points although they have lost their last two league games at Bognor Regis (0-2) last Saturday and a rare home defeat to Kingstonian (0-1) on Monday evening.    

Last season was their first in the Isthmian Premier and did superbly finishing third and reaching the playoffs where they lost at home to Tonbridge Angels in the Semi-Finals as well as making the 1^st Round of the FA Cup.

This promises to be a tough game but one which Cray can come into with confidence and could be one of the ties of the round if the earlier league game is anything to go by.   Admission costs £10 adults, £5 concs/U21s.