Wands Withstand Committed Corinth

Corinthian-Casuals 1-1 Cray Wanderers
Ryman Dicision One South
Saturday 14th January 2017
Match report:Cameron Smith.  Photo: Paul Downs (Full set HERE) -   Stuart Tree's photos HERE

Masterfully ‘parking the bus’ in the second half, ten-man Cray Wanderers
exasperated a luckless Corinthian Casuals side to grab a point in a 1-1 draw at King
George’s Field.

On Tuesday evening, Corinthians hosted their third consecutive home fixture versus
Molesey, in which a terrific second-half performance granted three hard-earned points for
Casuals in a 5-1 win. One day later (a Wednesday night), Cray Wanderers were trounced
5-1 by an unpredictable Walton Casuals team, therefore leaving them in ninth place. Two
games with identical results- Corinth had more positive news.

James Bracken kept the exact lineup that netted five goals on Tuesday to face Cray
Wanderers, who have an experienced side featuring Danny Haynes, a journeyman striker
who has represented Charlton Athletic, Ipswich Town and Bristol City, amongst others.
Would an experienced side be able to prevent the fast, attacking force of Casuals?

Before the game started, both sides gathered in the centre-circle for a well-observed
minute’s applause, in honour of the late Graham Taylor, the former-England, Watford and
Aston Villa manager. The referee concluded the one minute and the game started.

Spreading the ball across the surface of King George’s, play was brilliantly distributed by
an efficient and creative Cray side in the opening ten minutes with Haynes firing over. After
a brief reign of domination, Corinth slowly edged into the game and settled with the hightempo-
Shaun Okojie rifled a low shot into the gloves of keeper Nick Blue. Ben Cheklit’s
mazy run saw the winger force a good save before the subsequent corner was glanced
wide by Jamie Byatt. Casuals had two consecutive, agonising attempts on goal denied by
a yellow shirt on the goal-line; Byatt and Jack Strange had their heads in their hands after
the ball was booted away.

In the 33rd minute, the Wands took the lead via Carl Dent as the no.10 notched his
seventh goal of the season as he volleyed past Bracken from point blank range. Picking
themselves up, Casuals then equalised only two minutes later. Searching for his twentieth
goal of the campaign, Shaun Okojie was ready to dispatch a Juevan Spencer cross, but a
reckless sliding challenge from Lea Dawson denied him. A clear penalty, the offender was
given a yellow card as the referee pointed to the spot. Josh Uzun calmly converted into the
bottom left corner- it was 1-1.

Cray, who were dealing with Casuals’ fast attack well, were hugely disadvantaged when
Haynes (Cray’s top goal-scorer) was given his marching orders when he lunged at Danny
Dudley, leaving his foot outstretched and making contact. Horrendous, it was no surprise
when the referee grabbed his red card and sent him off.

A frantic first half was completed with the score 1-1.

If the next 45 minutes for Casuals were to be summarised in one word, it would be…
frustrating. The Wands put up their defensive shields, ready to combat the flow of Casuals
attacks. Josh Gallagher nearly broke those shields when his low effort was inches wide of
the post following a mis-understanding in the Cray ranks. Logical, the Cray side were
fabulously defending their goal as Okojie’s diving header was guided past the post with ten
minutes to go. During the last remaining minutes, Corinth were unable to score and
provide a late winner so three blows on the referee’s whistle ended the game 1-1.

Corinthians were out of the play-offs due to Lewes’ victory versus Herne Bay whilst Cray
sat in ninth place. A remarkable second-half performance, Cray won their hard-earned
point and we’d like to thank them and wish them well for the rest of the season- see you
next week for the away fixture! A tough away clash versus Molesey was next for James
Bracken as they aimed to retain their play-off spot.

Stuart Tree spoke to James Bracken after the game:
“One word to describe today? Frustrating.
“You've seen it a million times; if you watch football regularly, you'll know that breaking
down ten men isn't always the easiest thing to do. The sending off has totally changed the
complexion of the game. From there, Cray had very little ambition in the second half -
which is fine - I might have been same in similar circumstances. They stuck two banks of
four behind the ball and we didn't do enough to break that. We weren't quick enough when
moving the ball and it was hard on that pitch. It was a plod in a bog.
“At half time, I said to the boys that we played fine in the first half but missed three or four
good chances. We were the better team... just didn't take advantage. If we'd have carried
on that good play in the second half, and in honesty if they'd have kept eleven players on
the pitch, we probably would've won it because the game would likely have been more
open.
“With the pitch being the bog it was and our failure to break down the two banks of four, it
made for a very frustrating afternoon.
“However, it's another game unbeaten which you take the positives from but we need to
bounce back on Tuesday with another win.
“We came off the Molesey game last Tuesday in good confidence and we were good in the
first half here. We weren't able to adapt to the situation well enough to get three points.
“So I don't think this is a 'blip' game. Just a tough match in testing conditions. Hopefully,
come Tuesday night, the pitch will dry up a little bit which will help the game flow more.
Everyone can stay on their feet a bit easier. If we get the win, that'll be seven points in the
last three and that's the start of a nice unbeaten run.
“We haven't lost ground on the leaders though. The last five games, we've picked up five
points. Very feasibly, if another side had won five out of five, they could be ten points
further off than us. We have two games in hand. Win those and we're six points off the top
of the table. There's still a lot of football to play and it really is all to play for.
“It's not just us saying that though, a lot of sides in this league – right down to tenth place
will be thinking it's all to play for. We're confident of achieving something big here but it'd
be nice to get back on another winning run, get ourselves back in the playoffs and open up
a gap from sixth place.”