Cray Wanderers suffered more home disappointment as they went down to their third defeat in a row at Hayes Lane as Corinthian Casuals kept their playoff hopes very much alive.  Cray face a difficult task now to make the playoffs trailing by nine points to fifth placed Hastings and drop one place to tenth with Faversham’s point against South Park.

The Wands without a win in four took on a Casuals side which had lost their last two games, both away and this was a game full of drama right from the start.  Cray got off to a bad start when a Nathan Fox own goal in the seventh minute gave the Casuals the lead.  This was cancelled out in the 19th minute through a Danny Haynes strike, his 22nd league goal of the season.  Cray had a spell in the ascendancy but the Casuals went back in front in the 33rd minute when Reyon Dillon scored to give them the lead at the break.  Two minutes after half time. Dillon scored again to give Corinthian Casuals some daylight but a stirring Wands fightback saw goals by Ben Mundele and a Danny Bracken own goal put Cray back on terms with seventeen minutes to go.  Cray though were caught with a sucker punch six minutes from time when Shaun Okojie scored his 22nd goal of the season to win the game for the visitors.     

On a fairly murky evening it was the visitors who looked the more assured in the early stages and went in front in the 7th minute in unfortunate circumstances when Nathan Fox’s attempted back pass back to Nick Blue was slightly overhit and the ball sped towards goal leaving the Cray keeper unable to prevent the ball going into the net.  

Slowly Cray worked their way into the game and levelled in the nineteenth minute.  A move started by Ben Mundele saw the ball come to Luke Medley who set up Danny Haynes inside the penalty area who simply guided the ball into the net for a composed finish.

Cray then had a good spell of pressure and from a Jey Siva corner, the ball came to Jay Leader who powered a header just over the bar.

However, against the run of play Corinthian Casuals went back in front in the 33rd minute.  Blue  played a ball forward which was headed on by Josh Gallagher,  Lively forward Reydon Dillon latched onto the ball, strode forward and from the right edge of the penalty area fired home an accurate cross-shot which crept into the net.

Two minutes after the break it was 3-1 when, Jordan Clarke played a ball over the top of the Cray defence which was latched on to by Dillon who ran on and lobbed the ball over the advancing Blue.

In the 66th minute though, Cray pulled a goal back when after a patient build up the ball came to Brandon Scott down the right from Karl Dent’s pass.  The ball was played towards Dent who guided a cross into the box which the keeper couldn’t reach and Mundele stole in ahead of Dawson to prod the ball over the line to give us an exciting last quarter of the game.

In the 73rd minute Cray got back on terms for the second time with a stroke of luck of their own.  Siva’s right wing corner went into the heart of the goalmouth and keeper Danny Bracken perhaps aware of a challenge from Medley and from his own defender punched the ball into his own net to make it 3-3.

With six minutes to go, Cray went behind once again when the ball was worked down the right and Ben Cheklit put over a fine cross to the far post where substitute Shaun Okojie rose unchallenged to steer a header into the net.

The energy and zip seemed to ebb away from Cray after this and despite a great deal of effort the game ended on a sour note for Cray when Leader had to leave the field with what appeared to be a hamstring injury. 

Cray now have two home games coming up, on Saturday against Walton Casuals and then next Wednesday against Herne Bay.  With ten more games still to go there is sure to be more drama like tonight’s ahead.  

Cray:   Nick Blue, Ben Mundele, Nathan Fox, Jay Leader (Jai McKinlay, 87), Paul Lorraine, Lea Dawson (Capt.), Sean Roberts, Karl Dent (Zak Henry, 87), Danny Haynes (Brandon Scott, 50), Luke Medley, Jey Siva:  Subs:  Dane Luchford, Timi Osidobu

Attendance:   104