Cray are in Wednesday night action at Hayes Lane for the first time this season tomorrow as Hythe Town are the visitors for a 7.45pm ko which promises to be an exciting match.  This is the first league meeting between the sides since our Kent League days in 2004.

This will be the third Kent derby at Hayes Lane already this season and should be a game to savour as both sides are good going forward and are live contenders for the promotion playoff places come the end of the season.

The Wands got back to winning ways on Saturday at home to Three Bridges and despite a couple of late scares, Danny Haynes hat-trick, his first goals for the club helped them over the line. 

Certainly Cray have been involved with some exciting games at Hayes Lane this season in a Ryman South campaign which has started with surprise teams at the top of the table.  The Wands are ninth in the table after 7 games on 12 points but just a point behind fifth placed Greenwich Borough.  Saturday’s game saw the welcome return in goal of Nick Blue and Sean Roberts gave an excellent display in midfield and were it not for Haynes hat-trick would have probably have been Cray’s man of the match.  Despite injuries to the likes of Grant Basey, James Duckworth and on Saturday Karl Dent, the Wands are very much still in the mix with the early contenders.

Cray will definitely have to be at their best on Wednesday as Hythe are a very strong outfit who always seem to be around the top half of the table.  Clive Cook’s side are currently eleventh in the table, one point behind Cray and come into the game on the back of a FA Cup defeat to Walton Casuals on Saturday.  This though will have no bearing on the contest and Hythe have three former Cray players in their ranks, Nick Reeves, Chris Saunders and Dan Parkinson which adds to the occasion. 

The Cannons have been established members of the Isthmian League South for the last four seasons and have twice reached the playoffs in that time.  They were promoted to the Isthmian League for the first time in 2011-12 as Kent League Champions and also were the last Kent League side to reach the FA Cup 1st Round where they lost to then League Two Hereford United.   Since then they have finished twice in the playoffs in 2013-14 where they lost to Faversham Town in the Semi Final.  Last season they started the season quite poorly and flirted with relegation early on but made a tremendous late push up the table and ended up finishing fourth before losing to Worthing in the Semi Final.

This has the feel of a special night at Hayes Lane under the lights and a key game between sides looking to keep up with the early league pacesetters. 

Admission on the night is £10.00 adults, £4.00 concessions/U16s/students on presentation of card.