Cray went down to their second defeat of the season as Hythe took the three points in a high quality game at Hayes Lane.  A goal three minutes before half time put the visitors in the lead and despite some late pressure Cray were unable to grab an equaliser.

The first half was an end to end affair with Hythe having the better of the early exchanges and Nick Blue did well to save from an Alfie May free kick and Nick Reeves headed wide. 

Around the twenty five minute mark, Cray started to create openings and twice in two minutes Brandon Scott was denied by saves from Hythe keeper Joe Mant.  May was denied again by the excellence of Blue saving with his legs and Sean Roberts provided the best moment of the game with a curling strike which Mant tipped round the post.  Mant also pushed over a shot from Danny Haynes and Lea Dawson hit the post as the game continued at a frenetic pace.

Hythe though went ahead three minutes before half time when Josh Burchell’s strike was parried by Blue into the path of May who fired a home a left foot shot to score.     

The second half belonged territorially to Cray but found real chances hard to come by.  Jay Leader had a good chance with a header from a corner and Roberts and Haynes had shots blocked.

May came close to adding to Hythe’s lead but pulled a cross shot across goal after he went round Blue but they generally settled for what they had.

Cray came desperately close to scoring in the dying minutes of injury time when Ben Mundele down the left of the area saw his shot parried by Mant and the follow up by Roberts came back off the post and no Cray player could get a decisive touch to push the ball over the line.

In the end Hythe hung on to win and Cray remain eleventh in the league table with 12 points from 8 games played.

Cray:   Nick Blue, Ade Osifuwa, Jeysiva Sivapathasundaram, Jay Leader, Paul Lorraine (Jai McKinlay, 29), Lea Dawson (Capt.), Sean Roberts, Dean Carpenter (Max Williams, 76), Bradley Wood-Garness, Danny Haynes, Brandon Scott (Ben Mundele, 76):  Subs:  Solomon Taiwo, Taylor McDonagh

Att: 151