Cray Wanderers 4 - 2 Corinthian-Casuals
Bostik League South
Saturday 14th October 2017
Match report: Cameron Smith. Photos: Stuart Tree (full set here).
On a mild October afternoon in Bromley, Corinthian-Casuals’ two late strikes were not enough to salvage any points versus the clinical Cray Wanderers; Bracken’s injury-stricken side sit in 6th place in the unpredictable Bostik League South.
It was Jack Strange’s powering header that hammered into the roof of the net at King George’s on Saturday that sealed Casuals’ place in the next round of the FA Trophy. You would think that the one week break that followed would be a good thing for the Casuals, but in fact, James Bracken wasn’t able to select nine first-team players due to injuries or illness picked up during the week. Coskun Ekim, Kevant Serbony, Danny Cunningham and Tommy Smith were out on the side-lines, whilst a frontline of Jordan Clarke, Ben Cheklit and Reyon Dillon looked to challenge the Cray defence.
Around an hour from Tolworth, Corinthians travelled to Hayes Lane, home of National League side Bromley, who share their 3G artificial turf with Bostik South’s Cray Wanderers. Casuals’ first win in years was last season’s 4-3 thriller at Hayes Lane as Cray had previously proved to be a major bogey side. Located in and around the play-off positions, ‘the Wands’ hope to improve on last season’s mid-table position, and have had a bright start to the 17/18 campaign.
The chocolate & pink of Casuals and the yellow of Cray started proceedings on the 3pm mark, with the hosts clearly the better side after fifteen minutes. Sustained pressure and decent passages of play resulted in the opening goal. No.10 Aaron Rhule was free at the back post when a cross floated straight onto his head and into the back of the net. It was 1-0 to Cray after the first 15, how would Bracken handle conceding first? The answer was to continue with his original strategies, and hope that Wanderers would falter. The home side did not falter much, but did allow Casuals to get back in the game- the best chance was via a Josh Uzun corner, in which Mu Maan nearly bundled in if it wasn’t for the hands of Cray keeper Nick Blue. Then, in the 40th minute, Karl Dent stood over a free kick from 25 yards out for Cray, and curled an accurate effort into the bottom left corner of the net, leaving Danny Bracken stranded, unable to palm away the shot. This strike from the no.8 had condemned Casuals to a two goal deficit just before the break.
As the referee started the second half, both set of supporters switched sides and filled up on the grub in the clubhouse. Would Corinth finally have something to cheer about? No. A low cross in the 60th minute was converted by Rhule, who was at the back post again to score for Cray. At two goals down, it seemed Casuals still had an opportunity to claw themselves back into the game, but as the third goal was netted, that opportunity slipped from their grasp even more. Despite the disappointing 3-0 score-line, the Corinthian contingent behind the goal were still singing loud, and completely drowning out any noise from the Wanderers, and were halfway through a song when no.9 Michael Power scored two minutes after the third. It was now 4-0 to Cray.
Over? Far from it, said Malachi Robinson. It was the 64th minute when the left-back latched onto a terrific cross from the right flank; a booming tap-in flew past the Cray no.1 as Casuals fans were eventually able to celebrate. One down, three to go! It took a tad longer for the second to arrive, but when it did… Jordan Clarke had a relatively quiet game before the 72nd minute, and wasn’t able to advance past the yellow-shirted full-backs, until now. The no.11 picked the ball up on the left flank and swerved past three or four players in an epic run as he edged closer to the goal, and capped off this individual brilliance with a fake-shot before teeing up Reyon Dillon in the six-yard box, who sliced the ball in. The loudest cheer of the afternoon was when Dillon sprinted to the halfway line in an attempt to save time; it was 4-2 with twenty minutes left.
The final stages of the match included an agonising Josh Uzun free-kick that plummeted into the gloves of the Cray no.1, who dived to palm the ball away, amongst other Casuals half-chances. But in the end, James Bracken’s eleven (despite the late substitutions of Uzun and Jamie Byatt) could not comeback from Cray’s mountainous lead as the fixture ended 4-2 to the hosts.
Carshalton’s 2-1 loss at Guernsey and Hythe Town’s win over high-flying Whyteleafe was not pounced upon by Corinth, who sit inside the play-offs on goal difference in 6th place. A daunting trip to Brighton was next on the agenda as Lewes awaited the Casuals storm on a Wednesday night, before Saturday brought football back to Tolworth for Hastings United at home.
"We were 2-0 down before we got going. The first 45 minutes was a write-off," said James Bracken after the match.
We didn’t stop them from playing, though they’ve only had two efforts on goal in that period. But hey, they’ve scored four goals and fair play to them.
We never asserted ourselves in the first half. Whether it was showing them too much respect, which isn’t warranted. They’re an okay side but no more than that. They should’ve been comfortable with the win at the end, but we made sure it wasn’t.
We had nine missing today. I know that Horsham said last week that they had eight players not fit and lost 8-0 to Cray. Well, I had nine missing.
But it’s not an excuse. The team that we put out was good enough to win as they proved in the second half by scoring two goals away from home. We can’t concede the first half of a match. We can’t defend like we did for a few of their goals. You’re not going to get away with it. We got what we deserved. You cannot concede four goals and expect anything from the match.
We need to look at this, improve and make sure we’re better in the next game. We need to kick on.
I’m hopeful that one or two will be back for selection for sure. Three or four of the lads back would be better. But if these lads who played go again, they get my full faith, my full support and we’ll be ready. So don’t bet against us.
Bostik League South
Saturday 14th October 2017
Match report: Cameron Smith. Photos: Stuart Tree (full set here).
On a mild October afternoon in Bromley, Corinthian-Casuals’ two late strikes were not enough to salvage any points versus the clinical Cray Wanderers; Bracken’s injury-stricken side sit in 6th place in the unpredictable Bostik League South.
It was Jack Strange’s powering header that hammered into the roof of the net at King George’s on Saturday that sealed Casuals’ place in the next round of the FA Trophy. You would think that the one week break that followed would be a good thing for the Casuals, but in fact, James Bracken wasn’t able to select nine first-team players due to injuries or illness picked up during the week. Coskun Ekim, Kevant Serbony, Danny Cunningham and Tommy Smith were out on the side-lines, whilst a frontline of Jordan Clarke, Ben Cheklit and Reyon Dillon looked to challenge the Cray defence.
Around an hour from Tolworth, Corinthians travelled to Hayes Lane, home of National League side Bromley, who share their 3G artificial turf with Bostik South’s Cray Wanderers. Casuals’ first win in years was last season’s 4-3 thriller at Hayes Lane as Cray had previously proved to be a major bogey side. Located in and around the play-off positions, ‘the Wands’ hope to improve on last season’s mid-table position, and have had a bright start to the 17/18 campaign.
The chocolate & pink of Casuals and the yellow of Cray started proceedings on the 3pm mark, with the hosts clearly the better side after fifteen minutes. Sustained pressure and decent passages of play resulted in the opening goal. No.10 Aaron Rhule was free at the back post when a cross floated straight onto his head and into the back of the net. It was 1-0 to Cray after the first 15, how would Bracken handle conceding first? The answer was to continue with his original strategies, and hope that Wanderers would falter. The home side did not falter much, but did allow Casuals to get back in the game- the best chance was via a Josh Uzun corner, in which Mu Maan nearly bundled in if it wasn’t for the hands of Cray keeper Nick Blue. Then, in the 40th minute, Karl Dent stood over a free kick from 25 yards out for Cray, and curled an accurate effort into the bottom left corner of the net, leaving Danny Bracken stranded, unable to palm away the shot. This strike from the no.8 had condemned Casuals to a two goal deficit just before the break.
As the referee started the second half, both set of supporters switched sides and filled up on the grub in the clubhouse. Would Corinth finally have something to cheer about? No. A low cross in the 60th minute was converted by Rhule, who was at the back post again to score for Cray. At two goals down, it seemed Casuals still had an opportunity to claw themselves back into the game, but as the third goal was netted, that opportunity slipped from their grasp even more. Despite the disappointing 3-0 score-line, the Corinthian contingent behind the goal were still singing loud, and completely drowning out any noise from the Wanderers, and were halfway through a song when no.9 Michael Power scored two minutes after the third. It was now 4-0 to Cray.
Over? Far from it, said Malachi Robinson. It was the 64th minute when the left-back latched onto a terrific cross from the right flank; a booming tap-in flew past the Cray no.1 as Casuals fans were eventually able to celebrate. One down, three to go! It took a tad longer for the second to arrive, but when it did… Jordan Clarke had a relatively quiet game before the 72nd minute, and wasn’t able to advance past the yellow-shirted full-backs, until now. The no.11 picked the ball up on the left flank and swerved past three or four players in an epic run as he edged closer to the goal, and capped off this individual brilliance with a fake-shot before teeing up Reyon Dillon in the six-yard box, who sliced the ball in. The loudest cheer of the afternoon was when Dillon sprinted to the halfway line in an attempt to save time; it was 4-2 with twenty minutes left.
The final stages of the match included an agonising Josh Uzun free-kick that plummeted into the gloves of the Cray no.1, who dived to palm the ball away, amongst other Casuals half-chances. But in the end, James Bracken’s eleven (despite the late substitutions of Uzun and Jamie Byatt) could not comeback from Cray’s mountainous lead as the fixture ended 4-2 to the hosts.
Carshalton’s 2-1 loss at Guernsey and Hythe Town’s win over high-flying Whyteleafe was not pounced upon by Corinth, who sit inside the play-offs on goal difference in 6th place. A daunting trip to Brighton was next on the agenda as Lewes awaited the Casuals storm on a Wednesday night, before Saturday brought football back to Tolworth for Hastings United at home.
"We were 2-0 down before we got going. The first 45 minutes was a write-off," said James Bracken after the match.
We didn’t stop them from playing, though they’ve only had two efforts on goal in that period. But hey, they’ve scored four goals and fair play to them.
We never asserted ourselves in the first half. Whether it was showing them too much respect, which isn’t warranted. They’re an okay side but no more than that. They should’ve been comfortable with the win at the end, but we made sure it wasn’t.
We had nine missing today. I know that Horsham said last week that they had eight players not fit and lost 8-0 to Cray. Well, I had nine missing.
But it’s not an excuse. The team that we put out was good enough to win as they proved in the second half by scoring two goals away from home. We can’t concede the first half of a match. We can’t defend like we did for a few of their goals. You’re not going to get away with it. We got what we deserved. You cannot concede four goals and expect anything from the match.
We need to look at this, improve and make sure we’re better in the next game. We need to kick on.
I’m hopeful that one or two will be back for selection for sure. Three or four of the lads back would be better. But if these lads who played go again, they get my full faith, my full support and we’ll be ready. So don’t bet against us.
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