Cray Wanderers head for the Sussex Downs this weekend to face Whitehawk with boss Neil Smith hoping for a better week after losing to two late goals and then being hit for six.

After being beaten by late strikes at Bognor Regis ten days ago, Smith saw his side hammered at Billericay Town last weekend – a result which rocked the manager as he explained:

“From the Saturday to the Saturday it was not great! To be leading against Bognor and to let the two goals in, in the last five minutes – we had done well against them and then Saturday the six goals!”

“I know it sounds funny, but at one-nil down we had two chances to level and maybe go two-one up! We just have not been clinical and seen the teams off which is a real disappointment as there’s been some really good bits in between, but when you are playing these top sides, you come up against a squad like Billericay who have top, top players sitting on the bench, and they were just more clinical than us!” 

“We really didn’t see Saturday coming,” Smith admitted. “I spoke to the Billericay manager, and he said the same thing – they scored early, and we then had the better chances, but just did not take them.”

“We have been relying on Gary (Lockyer) to score of late – if he can score, great, but the other players do need to start helping; we had the chances, we just did not take them and we were not clinical enough, whilst they (Billericay) were very, very clinical and we really did not see it coming!” 

The two defeats followed a run for Cray that had seen them beaten just twice in their previous twelve games and Smith admitted his frustration at having Tuesday’s game at Folkestone frozen off.

“We wanted to get back playing as soon as possible, and right the wrongs.” he said. “The boys were disappointed with themselves after Saturday, they wanted to get back out there and play and put things right, showing people what they really can do.” 

“We will prepare for Whitehawk on Saturday – the Folkestone game was called off early enough so that we were able to get a training session in on Tuesday which probably helped us out a little bit so that we can put ourselves right for the weekend if we play.”

“We had a chat on Tuesday and the players did not see the Billericay result coming either! Other than the six, Shaun (Rowley) did not really have a save to make – I know that sounds really weird, but the boys are obviously disappointed.”

“They feel like they let themselves down, they let the management down, the Club and the Supporters, but we are in it together as a group and we want to put it right as soon as we can.” 

Picture supplied by Jon Hilliger.