Cray Wanderers have avoided the drop from the Ryman Premier League. Thursday night's results have ensured that Hastings United and either Carshalton Athletic or Lewes will be the two relegated clubs.

After their 2-2 draw against Lewes on Tuesday night the Wands moved up to sixteenth place and knew that they would be safe if Thursday's results involving other low-placed clubs were favourable to them.

Cray gained promotion to the Ryman Premier League at the start of the 2009-10 season. After a tough 2012-13 campaign both on and off the field they will be relieved to have secured their continuing status at this highest ever level of football that the club has played at.

Cray hit big problems in the 2012-13 season on 20 September when the LB Bromley planning committee threw out their application to build a new football stadium at Sandy Lane in St Paul's Cray.

That decision put the future of Cray Wanderers into great peril because the club is currently playing its first team football at Bromley FC, where the ground-sharing arrangement will expire in 2014.

Following that major setback to their ambitions the Wands began to see results on the field fall into decline, starting with the loss of some players who moved on to other clubs.

The month of February was especially disastrous for the Wands with successive defeats of 5-1 and 9-3 versus Enfield Town and Kingstonian.

Cray manager Ian Jenkins is at a loss to explain why his team have performed so well away from home in the Ryman Premier League this season, winning seven games on the road, while the home form has been dire with just three wins.

But with the threat of relegation hanging over the club during the second half of the season Jenkins has kept his nerve in his twentieth year at the club, and his team has shown sufficient spirit to rise above the off-field uncertainties and earn enough points to avoid the drop.

Foremost among the Cray players wearing the shirt with pride is long-serving striker Leigh Bremner whose 24 goals have been invaluable this season. Bremner has played nearly 300 games for Cray and the supporters have voted him player of the season.

Cray will conclude the Ryman Premier campaign with an away match at Wingate & Finchley on Saturday (3pm).

The post-season tour will see the Wands represent LB Bromley in a challenge match against FV Engers in Germany, by courtesy of the Bromley - Neuwied town twinning organisation.

Meanwhile there is a challenging agenda for club chairman Gary Hillman and for team manager Ian Jenkins.

Knowing that the 153 year-old Cray Wanderers club faces a barren future unless it can return to the Crays, Mr Hillman is currently working with local MPs and leaders of Bromley Council to expore if and how London's oldest football club can be saved and can become embedded in the local community where it belongs.

Ian Jenkins will have to reflect upon what has been the worst of his four seasons of Ryman Premier football and decide about players that he may wish to keep or bring in new for next season.