Kingstonian hold the cards in title race, admits Kempster

CRAY WANDERERS skipper Jamie Kempster says current leaders Kingstonian hold the cards in the race of the Ryman League Division One South title, writes Stephen McCartney.

The Wands have defeated the likes of fellow promotion challengers Ashford Town and Worthing in the past two weeks and are now level on points with Kingstonian.

And victory at Walton & Hersham on Tuesday night will see the Hayes Lane outfit leapfrog over the K’s in top spot - although the Surrey side will have three games in hand come ten o’clock on Tuesday night.

“It could be a banana skin,” Kempster warned, when speaking to www.kentishfootball.co.uk, following Cray Wanderers’ vital 2-1 home win over Worthing yesterday.

“We could go there and not turn up and they could be at the races. You never know with football, you could get a dodgy start, we’ve had a good start today.”

But Kempster insists the Cray camp will travel to Stompond Lane to do a professional job on a side that are 13^th in the table.

“We’ve got to go there with the mentality we had in the last four games,” he said. “We played Worthing, Ashford, and no disrespect to anyone, but we played Leatherhead and Burgess Hill, who are midtable teams - but our attitude was the same attitude then as it was in these games so that’s what we’ve got to stick to.”

Last weekend, following their comfortable 2-0 win at Ashford Town, Cray’s assistant manager Joe Francis said his side had to win all of their remaining league games to clinch the title.

And Kempster agrees that whoever goes on a run during the last eight weeks of the season will clinch promotion into the Ryman Premier League.

“A couple of weeks ago we were saying if a team in our league string eight or nine wins together they could potentially win the league, regardless at the time other teams have games in hand,” said the skipper.

“I mean, you can only have these games in hand but it gets tough, you could get knackered and you can slip up and we’ve seen that.

“I think Joe’s right, if you can put four wins on the spin, get another eight or nine, its there for the taking.

“Kingstonian have a couple games in hand still - I know that - but effectively you can’t do anything about the teams around you, but if you carry on winning all the games - we’ve still got them to play - it is there.”

And when asked which side holds the advantage in this exciting title race, Kempster replied, “I still say Kingstonian do. They’re still up there with a couple of games in hand so if they win them they’ve got the points.

“They’ve got a better goal difference than everyone else, so effectively I think they still hold the cards but as you know it could go down to the wire.”

If need be, however, Kempster will settle with going through the play-off’s, like they did last season.

“Well, I’d rather be in the play-off’s than not in them at all,” he said. “We all know at the start of the season that’s how it all works.

“Of course I’d grab it with both hands if you said we’d win the league, but if we can’t win the league, then I’d go in the play-off’s.”

But boss Ian Jenkins says he doesn’t want to endure the nerve-wrenching play-off’s, especially as his side suffered a heartbreaking defeat at Tooting & Mitcham United in last season’s final.

Jenkins, also speaking to www.kentishfootball.co.uk yesterday, says he is confident that his side will win on Tuesday night, despite previous disappointments this term.

"We’ve had three chances to go top this season and we’ve failed on all three of them,” he said.

“We’ve lost two and drew one, but we’re positive we’ll go there nice and strong and we’ve had a couple of good results (there) in the last two or three seasons.

“I’m pretty confident this team can go there and get three points.”

Visit Cray Wanderers’ website: www.craywands.co.uk

Walton & Hersham v Cray Wanderers
Ryman League Division One South
Tuesday 3^rd March 2009
Kick Off 7:45pm
At Sports Ground, Stompond Lane, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey KT12 1HF