9:24pm Thursday 23rd April 2009
By Jerry Dowlen
A dramatic seven days lies ahead for promotion-seeking Cray Wanderers as they conclude their 2008-09 Ryman League Division One South fixtures at home to Eastbourne Town this Saturday (3pm).
Kingstonian have already been crowned as champions and are promoted to the Ryman Premier, but the door is open for Cray to gain the second promotion place via the play-offs.
If Cray can beat Eastbourne on Saturday they will finish second in the table, giving them crucial home advantage in the play-off semi-final and also in the the final if they win through.
The other three play-off contestants will be Fleet Town, Metropolitan Police and Worthing, with Saturday's games determining these clubs' finishing positions of second to fifth in the final table.
This will be Cray's third attempt to reach the Ryman Premier via the play-offs in the five years that they have competed in Division One.
In 2004-05, their first ever season in the Ryman League, the Wands reached the Division One play-offs but lost 3-1 away to Horsham in the semi-final.
Last season 2007-08 the Wands made it to the play-off final but suffered the heartbreak of a 1-0 defeat at Tooting & Mitcham.
Saturday's game against Eastbourne looks set to be a tense occasion, and the Wands know that they will have to raise their game after last week's setback when they lost 1-0 away to Crowborough Athletic who are bottom of the table and already relegated.
Having already secured a place in the play-offs, Cray rested several of their first team players for the Crowborough game, but even so the defeat was unexpected and has put pressure on the players to get the desired result against Eastbourne on Saturday in order to secure the coveted second place in the final table.
Cray striker Lewis Wood had a particularly unfortunate afternoon at Crowborough, missing a penalty in the first half when his shot hit the bar, and also having two goals disallowed for offside.
The Wands are urging their supporters to turn out in force on Saturday and give every encouragement to manager Ian Jenkins and his players in their quest to bring Ryman Premier football to Cray for the first time ever in the club's history.
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