Next season will be a fresh start, says Cray Wanderers boss Keith Bird

Wednesday 15th January 2014

CRAY WANDERERS manager Keith Bird says he’s already got one eye on next season.

The Wands remain rooted to the foot of the Ryman Premier League table on 11 points from 25 games after going down to a disasterous 1-0 defeat at the team immediately above them, Enfield Town, last Saturday.

They were also dumped out of the League Cup by lower division Chatham Town last night, going down to a 2-1 defeat at Maidstone Road.

Bird has been busy over the Christmas period, as players have been coming and going through the club’s revolving door.

But the club are eleven points from stafety and are destined to suffer their first relegation in their history at the end of the season unless Bird can pull off a miracle.

“We’d like to think, a lot of the players that we’ve signed now, the squad that we’ve now put together, we’ve got a core squad of 22,” said Bird.

“We’d like to think whatever happens this year we can keep the majority of the squad together what happens this season because next season will be a fresh start.

“We can have a proper pre-season with the squad, have some pre-season friendlies and we can go into next season with a lot of momentum, whatever division we’re playing in, so we’re hoping we can keep as much of the squad together.

“The recruitment that we’ve done, the signings that we’ve made in the last three weeks is not really about this season. What we’re doing we’re putting a team together with one eye on the future.

“If you look at the signings, we’ve brought in a lot of experience. We’ve also brought in a lot of really good quality, exciting 19-20 year olds with lots of potential who could potentially be with the club for the next two, three, four years.”

Cray Wanderers must start picking up wins, starting with Saturday’s Kent derby against Terry Brown’s Margate at Hayes Lane.

Bird said: “We’ve got to start picking up points and we’ve got to start picking them up quickly. The longer this goes on the less runway there is in front of us. Saturday is a very big game for us.”

Central defender, Joe Vines, who left the Wands in February 2013 to sign for Margate, has been released by Brown, after making 33 appearances for the club, scoring one goal.

Newly-appointed Brown has also released a second defender, Elliott Cox, 21, after also making 33 appearances for Margate after his summer arrival from Hastings United.

Visit Cray Wanderers website: www.pitchero.com/clubs/craywands

Visit Margate’s website: www.margatefc-com

Cray Wanderers v Margate
Ryman Premier League
Saturday 18^th January 2014
Kick Off 3:00pm
At Hayes Lane, Bromley, Kent BR2 9EF