9:50am Tuesday 5th May 2009
By Jerry Dowlen
CRAY Wanderers are celebrating promotion to the Ryman Premier Division after Saturday's dramatic 1-0 win against Metropolitan Police in the Division One South play-off final.
Simon Osborn's superly-struck goal settled an unbearably tense afternoon in front of Cray's biggest crowd of the season at Hayes Lane.
Osborn, the 37-year-old former Crystal Palace midfielder, showed all his class and experience when he fired a free-kick into the net in the 79th minute.
The visitors had shaded the first half, drawing some good saves from Cray 'keeper Glen Knight.
After the interval it was the Wands who raised their game, going close on several occasions before Osborn's late moment of magic sealed a well-deserved win.
The celebrations were loud and long after the final whistle, as a huge wave of jubilation and relief swept through the Cray camp.
Promotion into the Ryman Premier will mean that Cray are playing at their highest level of football in their 150 year history - a landmark that the club will celebrate in 2010.
For club chairman Gary Hillman and team manager Ian Jenkins, the promotion represents another big step forward in the success story that they have presided over at Cray since Hillman came to the club in 1994 and Jenkins (a player since 1993) was appointed manager in 1999.
Off the field too, Gary Hillman has kept the flame of ambition burning for the club.
A new football ground for the Wands in 2014 is the project plan that Hillman announced last year after identifying a site in Sandy Lane, St Paul's Cray.
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