Cray Wanderers began 2018 by grabbing a very useful point following a tough goalless draw at Greenwich Borough.  The draw extended Cray’s unbeaten league run to 19 games and keeps Cray in second place, two points behind leaders Lewes and two ahead of third placed Corinthian Casuals in the Isthmian South table and three ahead of Greenwich Borough in fourth place. 

In a game played at a high intensity but with lots of quality football two very good defences helped keep two very high scoring teams at bay.

Greenwich had an early shout for a penalty kick when Jack Barham went down in the box while Cray had the ball in the net via Aaron Rhule but the goal was ruled out for offside.

Cray then had their best opening of the half when Jay Leader’s effort was deflected into the path of Lea Dawson inside the area who set up Michael Power whose drive was deflected over the bar for a corner.

The rest of the half belonged to Greenwich who came close when Tom Beere saw a close range shot very well saved by the diving Nick Blue who did even better to save from the follow up from Chinedu McKenzie.  The loose ball came back to Beere whose goalbound effort was cleared off the line by Leader.

Before half time Greenwich were denied once again by the brilliance of Blue when Bradley Pritchard set up Sam Corne for a shot from the edge of the box which looked to heading for the bottom left corner but for an excellent one handed diving save.

Cray lost Aaron Rhule and Michael Freiter through injuries at the end of the first half but the second half was much better for the Wands who weathered early pressure and almost won the game.

From a free kick way out on the left, Karl Dent’s ball into the box got the merest flick off the head of Lea Dawson who saw his header beat George Kamurasi and back off the post, following up Brandon Scott saw a shot deflected over.

Then from a Dent corner, Power flicked the ball through to Dawson whose close range prod towards goal was saved on the line by Kamurasi.

After four games in nine days both teams tired a bit by the end but a draw was about the right result in an end to end game but neither defence was willing to yield.

Cray are next in action on Sunday afternoon at home to fifth placed Walton Casuals, 3pm kick off.

Team:  Nick Blue, Ben Mundele, Barney Williams, Jay Leader, Mitchell Nelson, Lea Dawson (Capt.), Zak Henry, Michael Freiter (Karl Dent, H/T), Michael Power (Freddie Parker, 78), Aaron Rhule (Jerome Federico, 41), Brandon Scott:  Subs:  Dean Carpenter, Marcus Evans

Att:  165