Cray Wanderers face a possibly season defining week as Neil Smith’s side play three of the sides below them in the relegation scrap in the Isthmian Premier Division and he wants three wins!

With home games to come against Canvey Island and Kingstonian in the next seven days, this Saturday the Wands venture round the M25 to face a Cheshunt side one place and one point outside the drop zone. 

“Nine points and three wins – are we safe?” Smith questioned when we asked him this week.

“We have looked at it deeper as we played Folkestone recently before last weekend’s draw, its four out of five games against teams around us.”

“We won the game before Folkestone, and it felt like a win there too nicking that last second draw. Last weekend against Concord, we played better football, had numerous attacks at goal and still came away with a 1-1!”

“That felt like a loss – the emotions at the moment are very up and down. We have to put that aside; we have to create the chances, take them, and make sure that we do not lose to the teams in and around us starting with a big game against Cheshunt!” 

“We know Craig Edwards their manager and know that they will be strong and physical, and we have to match that. It will be difficult, but we have trained well all week and hope we can take that into Saturday.” 

“They are always difficult to play against and I have a lot of respect for Craig. He’s got a lot of experience. There is never an easy game against them, and we do not expect any difference this time and we have to match them in every department and hopefully if we get the chances that we did last week, this time we will take them.” 

“We know that we are ten points ahead of the bottom four, but until we get as clear away from there as possible, we are not counting anything!”

“I have seen too many teams at the wrong time of the season take their foot off the gas as they think that they are safe.”

“Whilst teams are still fighting and it’s mathematically able that we could get pulled into it, we have got to make sure that we win every game and hopefully that will start Saturday.”

“I know that we have got a big week coming up, but we will not be looking any further than Cheshunt – it is a massive, massive game and three points pulls us further away from them.”

“That’s what we have to do with the teams that are down there and start clawing our way into the middle third of the table where they seem a little bit safer!” 

Picture supplied by Jon Hilliger.