Cray Wanderers look to build on the momentum of Wednesday nights exciting Kent Senior Cup win against Dartford as they take on in-form Herne Bay in the Bostik South at Hayes Lane. Kick off is 3pm.

The win against a good Dartford side helped to restore confidence after the defeat to Lewes last Saturday which ended the unbeaten league start to the season. The star of the show was Ralique Lawrence who stepped up from the Development side to score a classy hat-trick with a header, near post flick and capped off a fine move with a composed finish to do himself no harm at all with possible selection for the Herne Bay game. Brandon Scott has departed to Whitehawk, Aaron Rhule is unavailable and Bradley Stevenson suspended so Ralique could feature on Saturday.

Nick Blue, Lea Dawson, Barney Williams and Jay Leader all sat out the game on Wednesday and should return although Mitchell Nelson is also suspended. Other players to stand out on Wednesday were centre-half Marcus Evans who looks a terrific prospect, Zak Henry who with each game is getting better and better and also Dean Carpenter who missed a couple of games had a storming second half and gives the side balance, a bit of bite and seldom gives the ball away.

Cray were by most neutral observers rather unlucky to lose to Lewes last Saturday. Key decisions went against Cray when the Wands were on top particularly the red card to Bradley Stevenson which was harsh in the extreme and the foul for the penalty, although a foul the offence seemed to take place outside the area. The winning goal also looked offside but there is no point dwelling too much on that game and it will be a different type of challenge against Herne Bay who are a quick, athletic side, good on the ball and come to Hayes Lane having scored nine goals in a week. The Wands will want to maintain ground on the early leaders but it is still very early in the season and all about getting consistency.

Herne Bay are managed by John Embery and Jermaine Darlington and are sixth in the league table and since losing their opening two league games have been on a roll with four straight league wins beating Chipstead 3-1, Faversham 3-0 away on Bank Holiday Monday, VCD 4-0 and most impressively 4-2 at Hastings on Tuesday night after trailing 2-0. Leading scorer in the league is Jake Embery with 4 but goals have been shared liberally around the team.

Going with the league form, Herne Bay are one of just two Bostik South clubs remaining in the FA Cup havings defeated Chessington & Hook, Walton Casuals and a tremendous 5-2 win at Horsham last weekend which sets up a trip to Margate in the 3rd Qualifying Round on 30th September. The only real recent blot was a heavy defeat (1-10) at Tonbridge Angels in the League Cup.

Games at Hayes Lane are rarely dull and this one should be a cracking Kent derby. Admission prices £10.00 adults, £5.00 concs/U16s/Students on presentation of card.