Cray Wanderers make their third successive league trip to Sussex on Saturday as they travel to Lancing for the first time to take on Horsham. Kick off is 3pm. 
This will be the first of two successive Saturday meetings with Horsham as the two sides meet in the FA Trophy at Hayes Lane on 7th October.
Cray will be looking to build on the momentum of two excellent home wins against Dartford in the Kent Senior Cup and against Herne Bay in the Bostik South last Saturday. Both performances were very strong and victory was well deserved in both.
Both those wins included hat-tricks for Ralique Lawrence against Dartford and Michael Power against Herne Bay and Power looked to be on the way back to near enough full sharpness which will be a great asset for Tony Russell in the pursuit of goals.
The midfield area against Herne Bay was excellent with Lea Dawson, Zak Henry, Dean Carpenter and Karl Dent putting in 9 out of 10 performances and controlled the match superbly. Carpenter has been immense in the last two games whilst Dent was at the heart of everything the Wands did in attack.
Defensively, the Wands have been resolute conceding just six goals in the league and two of those were penalties. Despite Mitchell Nelson being suspended, another young talent, Marcus Evans stepped in and played very well alongside the imperious Jay Leader to fend off the Herne Bay attacks. The only downside were two injuries to Ben Mundele and Timi Osidobu and it remains to be seen if they are fit for the trip to Lancing.
The Wands made the signing of midfielder/winger, Kyron Lightfoot from Faversham Town on Wednesday night and looks a useful addition to the squad which will have Bradley Stevenson as well as Nelson suspended.
The breakthrough of young players like Evans, Henry, Freddie Parker, Lawrence and another U23s player Romario Hart has been one of the highlights of the season so far and these players have stepped in when there have been injuries or players unavailable and have performed admirably well.
Horsham come into the game on the back of a home win after beating Burgess Hill Town 4-2 in the Velocity League Cup on Wednesday night. That helped restore morale following three straight home defeats to Chipstead, Herne Bay (FA Cup) and Sittingbourne so will have a spring in their step on Saturday.
Dominic Di Paola’s team lie 18th in the Bostik South league table with seven points but have only played seven games. They have beaten Shoreham and Guernsey at home and picked up a good point at Walton Casuals. They have been beaten at Molesey and Thamesmead Town as well as at home to Chipstead and Sittingbourne. Joint leading scorers so far are Toby House and Robert O’Toole with 3 goals. In the FA Cup they beat Chertsey 3-1 away and Ashford United 6-0 at home before losing 2-5 to Herne Bay at home in the 2nd Qualifying Round.
Last season was their first back in the Isthmian League following promotion from the Southern Combination in 2015-16. They were perhaps a little inconsistent but finished very comfortably in 16th place on 61 points. They did beat Tooting & Mitcham United and Dorking Wanderers at home so certainly made their mark during the campaign.
The two meetings last season were attack minded affairs with Cray winning 3-2 at Horsham in September, 2016 coming from behind twice to win with goals by Bradley Woods-Garness, Lea Dawson and a spectacular stoppage time strike from Karl Dent. The return match at Hayes Lane finished in a 2-2 draw in November with Danny Haynes scoring twice.
Much like the Wands, Horsham have been looking to get a ground of their own after groundsharing with Horsham YMCA for many years which has now come to an end. They had a revised planning application for a new ground passed by the local council earlier this year after originally having plans rejected. Whilst building work takes place, they are playing their home matches in 2017-18 at Lancing FC’s Culver Road ground.
With both teams looking to prosper in the coming years this could be a match between two upwardly mobile clubs in the future. It should certainly be a fine game of football much in keeping with the matches played so far.