Cray Wanderers produced an outstanding display to go 13 points ahead of the Isthmian South-East after a Junior Dadson inspired performance saw the Wands score six against an in-form Herne Bay side at Hayes Lane. 

On a cold afternoon, it didn’t take long for the fans to warm up as Cray took the lead on 7 minutes as Dadson scored the first of four on the afternoon tapping in from Jerome Federico’s cross.  Cray really cranked up the gears in the second half and five minutes after the break Dadson confidently fired home Karl Dent’s pass to make it 2-0.  Dadson then became goal maker with his cross being turned in by Federico in the 69th minute.  The last few minutes saw three more Cray goals with Dadson completing his hat-trick from the penalty spot with five minutes to go and then notched a fourth in the 90th minute.  There was still time three minutes into added on time for Daniel Uchechi to volley home his first goal for Cray from another Dadson assist.      

Cray began well moving the ball around sweetly and opened up the Herne Bay defence in the 7th minute with a well worked goal.  Ben Mundele brought the ball forward down the right, and slipped the ball between two defenders into Jerome Federico who close to the byline laid the ball across to the far post where Dadson got in front of a defender to turn the ball into the net for the fifth goal of the season.

Herne Bay though showed what they were capable of with a good piece of play down the right with Simon Kabamba finding Tahjae Anderson, just over 20 yards from goal who hit a shot which was goal bound and Nick Blue did superbly to tip the ball over the bar for a corner.  Then Jake Embery was denied by a fine last ditch block from Mitchell Nelson which led to a corner. Cray came close to scoring again with Karl Dent hitting the side netting, Federico fired over and Freddie Parker tested keeper Simon Overland with a stinging drive from 25 yards which was pushed behind.

Cray led 1-0 at the break and scored a second five minutes after the restart when Tom Phipp found Dent just outside the penalty area  who worked his way down the left of the area and squared the ball to Dadson who fired low into the bottom left corner from eight yards.

Herne Bay were unfortunate not to get a goal back which would have made for a fascinating last half hour when Danny Leonard found space to hit a shot which thudded back off the right post and the ball came out to Kabamba whose effort was held by Blue.

On 69 minutes Cray scored a third goal when Joe Taylor in the centre circle found Dadson who burst into the box and laid the ball across to the far post where Federico was on hand to turn the ball in from three yards for his third goal of the season.

With five minutes to go, Cray were awarded a penalty when Taylor was upended inside the box by Danny Rumbol.  With the lure of a hat-trick looming, Dadson stepped up to take the penalty and confidently stroked the ball home to claim his first hat-trick and match ball.

Then in the last minute, Cray made it 5-0 when Dent and Taylor combined to play in Dadson once again who placed the ball under Overland from ten yards to score his fourth of the game with Cray in full cry.

In the third minute of stoppage time, the Wands scored a sixth again with Dadson involved as his attempted left wing cross-shot found its way to the far post to Daniel Uchechi who volleyed in his first goal for Cray and capped off the match in style.

Cray Wanderers: Nick Blue, Ben Mundele, Archie Johnson, Jay Leader, Mitchell Nelson, Bradley Pritchard (Sean Roberts, 74), Tom Phipp, Karl Dent, Freddie Parker (Joe Taylor, 66), Junior Dadson, Jerome Federico (Daniel Uchechi, 83):  Subs:  Marcus Evans, Tiwa Fujimade

Att: 191