Cray’s poor run of form continued as Heybridge Swifts inflicted a fourth defeat in five games which in turn saw the Wands drop to fourth in the table.  Cray were reduced to ten men for the last twenty minutes following the dismissal of Leigh Bremner and battled hard to pull back a 3-1 deficit in the second half but in the end were picked off by a hard working Swifts side.

Heybridge went ahead in the 14th minute when Jack Barham dispossessed Sean Roberts and fired home a decent strike from the edge of the penalty area.   

Swifts led 1-0 at half time and George Cole hit the post before Cray levelled when James Duckworth struck home a fine shot in the 53rd minute.

However, the joy was short lived as two minutes later, the visitors restored the lead when Barham took advantage of a rare mistake from keeper Nick Blue when he intercepted a pass to Jay Leader and rolled the ball into the net.

It became 3-1 in the 65th minute when Barham was quickest to react to a parried save by Blue to poke the ball over the line to complete his hat-trick.  Four minutes later Leigh Bremner was sent off for violent conduct as Cray’s afternoon got worse.

In the 81st minute, Cray pulled a goal back when Aryan Tajbakhsh hit a twenty five yard screamer to give the Wands hope late in the game.  

Heybridge though had the final say with substitute Jamie Guy scoring in injury time to end Cray’s hopes of a comeback.  

Cray:   Blue, Osifuwa, Basey (Carpenter), Leader, Payne, Dawson (Capt.), Roberts, Dent (Tajbakhsh), Hunt (Rabiu),  Bremner, Duckworth:  Subs:  Smith, Faulkner

 

Att:      104