I always love going back to my old clubs, says Joe Francis

Thursday 07th April 2011

JOE FRANCIS says he is relishing his return to two of his former clubs in the next five days, writes Stephen McCartney.

Cray Wanderers travel to Kingstonian in the Ryman Premier League on Saturday - and lock horns with landlords Bromley in a mouth-watering Kent Senior Cup Semi-Final tie next Tuesday.

The Wands’ play-off aspirations are still on, following Laurent Hamici’s stunning strike sealed a resilient 1-0 win at Wealdstone last Monday.

Ian Jenkins’ side may be in tenth place in the Ryman Premier League table, with 59 points from 37 games, but they are only four points adrift of fifth-place and have everything to play for in their last remaining five games, starting at Kingstonian on Saturday.

The K’s go into the game sitting in ninth place and have two more points than the Kent side, who have won their last two games.

“Very tough game,” warned assistant manager Francis. “I’m looking forward to seeing Dousey (Alan Dowson, the Kingstonian manager) and everybody at Kingstonian. I always love going back to Kingstonian and it will be good to see everybody over there because of the banter on the bench is great.

“Dousey is in it (the fight for the play-off’s) as well, so he’ll be up for it.

“It will be a really tough game because when you’ve had a result like that (at Wealdstone) you don’t go there without any negative thoughts. We’re going there with positive thoughts.”

Cray Wanderers will have the home dressing room for the clash against Bromley at Hayes Lane next Tuesday, with the winners facing Dartford in this season’s Kent Senior Cup Final.

The last time the two sides met was in 2008, when Cray Wanderers’ supporters were celebrating a famous 6-1 victory, en-route to the final, which they lost to Ebbsfleet United.

“It’s a nice distraction, but I’ll take five out of five and a loss to Bromley all day long to get into the play-off’s”, said Francis.

“We’re looking forward to it. Listen, we’re always considered to be the poor relations there because that’s their patch.

“We all know Jerry (Dolke, Bromley’s owner) intimately and we’ve got a good relationship with him and we’re looking forward to going to Bromley. It’s romantic for me every time we play Bromley.

“We’ll be in the home dressing room, that’ll be nice – we might get a hot shower!”

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

Kingstonian v Cray Wanderers
Ryman Premier League
Saturday 9^th April 2011
Kick Off 3:00pm
at Kingsmeadow Stadium, Jack Goodchild Way, 422a Kingston Road, Kingston-Upon-Thames, Surrey KT1 3PB