Cray Wanderers slipped down one place to seventeenth in the table and are still caught up with a relegation battle in the final weeks of the season, after losing 1-0 at home to Thurrock on Saturday.

Third-from-bottom Thurrock started the game five points behind Cray, but thanks to Charlie Stimson's smartly-placed header in the 74th minute they capitalised on a poor performance from the home side who looked to be badly mssing the injured Leigh Bremner, their leading goalscorer this season.

A scrappy first half contained very little goalmouth action. Cray threatened first on 4 minutes but James Fray shot tamely after he was cleverly put through on goal, and then at the other end Stimson hesitated and allowed Aaron Day to rob him after he seemed to have a clear shooting chance in the 23rd minute.

Cray came to life just before the interval, and Will Viner saved well with his feet after Billy Burgess scooped the ball in from the right and Michael Power connected with a fierce volley.

In the second half, Andy Walker was far the busier of the two goalkeepers, starting with a great one-on-one save from Danny Green as Thurrock made the running.

Cray seemed to run out of ideas up front, with the lanky Matt Turpin barring the way down the middle.

Lewis Spence drilled a shot wide for Thurrock and then on 70 minutes Jack Clark's free-kick picked out Mark Willy, but the Cray skipper headed wide.

Once Thurrock had taken the lead they were never in danger of surrendering it, and Walker had to make fine saves from substitutes Danny Jones and Louis Hazlewood.

Cray: Walker, Burgess, Clark, Saunders, Willy, Day, Fray, Stavrinou, Power, Phillips, Long (Pooley 67). Subs not used: Sackey, Estrada, B Abbott, G Abbott.

Cray travel to Lowestoft Town on Tuesday (7.45pm) and Wealdstone on Saturday (3pm).