crayvrams081103

Thursday 01st September 2005
Cray solid at the back
 
Cray Wanderers 4-1 Ramsgate
Saturday 8 November 2003
Go Travel Kent League Premier Division
by Jerry Dowlen
 

A 4 - 1 scoreline for top-of-the-table Cray suggests that the Wands forward line earned top billing at Hayes Lane.

But in truth the foundation stone of the Wands' victory was the solid and battling performance of the back four and the Cray 'keeper Dean Mann who gave a brave and faultless display even though he was troubled by an early injury and needed two visits from the physio to help him last the ninety minutes.

Cray eventually blunted the visitors' aggressive and fast-breaking forwards, and found the gaps in the visitors' not-so-impressive defence.

Shane Suter seized a rebound from his own free-kick and crashed an unstoppable shot past Mann in the 14th minute, but the lively Ricky Bennett put the Wands on terms after 33 minutes when he chased John Mayall's long clearance and shot past Danny Twyman.

Mayall's left-wing cross was missed by Jamie Kempster when he tried a hook shot after 63 minutes, but the loose ball fell to Jamie Wood who let fly a screamer that hit the far corner of the net.

Ian Jenkins and Joe Francis immediately made a tactical substitution, replacing winger Ross Lover with defender Danny Whelan who bolstered the back line with great determination.

Bennett calmed the Wands' nerves on 80 minutes with a near-replica of his first goal, winning a chase for the ball and rolling it into the empty net as Twyman failed to gather.

A double-substitution of strikers paid further dividends for the Wands three minutes later when Matt Woolf set up Sam Wood to net his first ever Cray goal with a diving header.

Former Tunbridge Wells defender John Mayall was named man-of-the-match.

Cray Wanderers: Mann, Silk, Mayall, Gray, Evans Taylor, Heaslewood, Kempster, J Wood (S. Wood), Bennett (Woolf), Lover (Whelan).

Ramsgate: Twyman, Brown, Gregory, Morris, O. Schulz, W. Schulz, Suter, Lane, Guiver, Takalagaboshi, Robinson.