Cray Wanderers 0-2 Concord Rangers - It just didn't happen for us tonight, admits Ian Jenkins

CRAY WANDERERS  0-2  CONCORD RANGERS
Ryman Premier League
Wednesday 2^nd January 2013
Stephen McCartney reports from Hayes Lane

CRAY WANDERERS boss Ian Jenkins says he will investigate claims made by Concord Rangers that his defender Joe Vines allegedly punched Concord Rangers’ left-back Danny Glozier in a tunnel bust-up at the end of tonight’s deserved defeat to the Essex side.

Referee Lee Venamore said he will report the incident in his post-match report to the football authorities after the Essex visitors claimed Joe Vines knocked out Glozier’s front teeth in a post-match scuffle down the players’ tunnel at Hayes Lane.

The alleged incident came following a poor performance from the home side as Concord Rangers leapfrogged five places into fourth-place in the Ryman Premier League table, leaving Cray Wanderers marooned in 12^th place with 25 points from nineteen games, fifteen points adrift of leaders Whitehawk and seven points clear of the relegation zone.

When asked what happened, Jenkins replied, “Nothing mate!  I’ve heard someone’s thrown a punch at someone so I don’t really know what’s gone on but I’ve got to find out.  I don’t know what the referee’s report is going to be so we just have to wait and see that I suppose.

“Their players are talking about punches being thrown but I haven’t seen it but I’ll be talking to a few of the players and some of the coaching staff and see what they think.”

The dubious goals panel awarded Concord Rangers’ first goal as an own goal from Cray Wanderers keeper Andy Walker, when in truth any one of three players could have had the final touch, before Concord Rangers’ striker Tony Stokes looped home a second with only 20 minutes on the clock.

Concord Rangers deserved their victory to inflict Cray Wanderers’ fifth home league defeat of the season at Hayes Lane, a venue that has seen Jenkins’ men win only two of their home nine league games.

Landlords Bromley have also been struck down with the Hayes Lane curse as Mark Goldberg’s side have won three of their ten league games and as a result sit in the bottom three in the Blue Square Bet (Conference) South table.

Jenkins said: “We’re playing alright here, we’re just not getting our rewards. I think the other teams are coming here and upping their game because it’s a nice stadium, the pitch is alright considering we’ve had all the rain.  I don’t know. I can’t put my finger on it!

“We’ve even wore the Bromley kit tonight to try to change it a little bit.”

When asked why his side were wearing Bromley’s third kit of yellow shorts, Jenkins explained: “I just didn’t do enough shirts.  The laundrette was shut today so I had to go and pick the other kit up.  I’ve brought another one thinking there was enough shirts, there wasn’t (there were only nine shirts).  Jerry (Dolke, Bromley’s owner) done us a favour and let us wear the yellow owns, which was nice of him, but it didn’t change the luck for us.”

Concord Rangers dominated proceedings for vast chunks of this game and they called Walker into making a smart save after only 184 seconds.

Striker Harry Elmes cut the ball back to Reece Harris, who played a lovely dinked pass to put Nicky Cowley through on goal but Walker got down low to his right to deny the central midfielder scoring with a flicked left-footed shot.

Cray Wanderers’ opening chance arrived shortly after when Michael Power whipped in a free-kick from the right and visiting keeper Tom Lovelock came out to punch the ball away. The ball was retrieved by Mark Willy out on the left hand side and the central defender clipped the ball back into the box where his partner at the back Joe Vines skied a hooked left-footed volley over.

Concord Rangers issued their hosts a warning when Danny Spendlove whipped in a corner from the left towards the far post and the solid Steve King sent a downward header which was hacked clear by Paul Vines at the near post.

But the respite didn’t last long as Concord Rangers deservedly opened the scoring after seventeen minutes – but who to give the goal to will be debated.

Harris swung in a corner from the right where Walker went to collect the ball at his near post, but King nipped in to attempt to flick the ball past the keeper, but Walker owned up to getting the final touch by pushing the ball into his own net.

King, Harris and Walker can all have shouts to claim the goal, but Jenkins admitted his keeper will be going down as the scorer.

Jenkins said: “Walks has hold his hands up, he’s pushed it into the net.  He got the last touch.  Even the linesman our side said (it was an own goal).

“I thought it was handball from King, it probably was.

“We’ve defended set-plays well this year, we’ve worked on a system and it’s been working so it’s really the first one in a lot of games we’ve had against us this year that we’ve conceded from.

“It’s going to happen. Even the top sides all concede from set-plays.  It’s disappointing really.  I thought Walks could have done a bit better but it’s just one of those things.”

Jenkins, however, described Stokes’ goal within three minutes of Walker’s own goal as a great finish.

Jack Lampe clipped the ball into the Cray Wanderers penalty area and Stokes turned and swung his left leg at the ball and the ball looped over Walker and dropped in to the near corner.

Jenkins said: “Great finish! Great finish!  I’d like my forwards to score goals like that!  We want to get it under control at the edge of the box. They don’t want to shoot.

“He’s just helped it on, Van Persie like and it’s gone into the top corner so it’s a great finish.

“He’s got that in his locker. He’s a good player. He’s playing at a level he shouldn’t be playing at but fair play to him.”

The impressive King, who kept Leigh Bremner and Paul Vines out of the game, played the ball from the back and Elmes exchanged a slick one-two with Stokes before sweeping a weak low left-footed shot towards goal from sixteen-yards from a central position, which was comfortably saved by Walker low to his right.

Cray Wanderers rallied towards the end of the first half, but this was not a typical lively performance from the Kent side.

Power snatched at a left-footed drive from 30-yards, which deflected off King and looped up high into the night sky but dropped just over Lovelock’s crossbar.

Power took the resulting corner, which resulted in midfielder Danny Phillips picking up the ball inside the box but his left-footed drive was comfortably saved by Lovelock at his near post.

Jenkins added: “Micky will get opportunities around the box, he’ll shift it and shoot because he can hit it with both feet.  He doesn’t shoot enough for me. He was unlucky with that one that got blocked and went over the bar and Danny’s been pretty positive over the last few weeks. We know how he wants to play now. He’s creating a few chances for us, but overall it just weren’t good enough.”

Cray Wanderers then fell asleep when Harris drilled a quickly taken free-kick towards goal from 30-yards on the angle, but Walker remained alert and made a smart low save in front of his body.

Jenkins admitted afterwards that he felt his side could wake up from their slumber and snatch a point from a poor performance, after coming away from Harrow Borough with a 3-3 draw in their last outing.

“Really it was about what happened Saturday being 2-0 down. It was a similar situation although we did say to them we’re not playing against Harrow Borough, you’re playing against Concord who are a very good side, so are Harrow Borough, no disrespect to them.  Concord are a better side and I just said, listen we’ve come back 3-2 on Saturday, we can do it again!  We’ve proved that we can do it!

“To be honest with you, possession stats second half we probably had most off it without really creating nothing.  If we did create a few chances in that half we might have got something out of it but the most disappointing thing is not creating at all.

“The side we put out there the six or seven players that are just attacking players we just didn’t create much.”

Walker was called into action inside the opening five minutes of the second half to save Stokes’ right-footed free-kick from 25-yards, which was stroked over the wall.

But Cray Wanderers came agonisingly close to twice finding the bottom far corner just after the hour-mark.

A diagonal pass from left-back Tyrone Sterling picked out Paul Vines on the corner of the penalty area but he was crowded out by the solid Concord defensive line so he cut the ball back to supporting midfielder Alex Stavrinou, who was given time and space to curl a right-footed shot across Lovelock which narrowly missed the foot of the far post.

Power and Sterling then combined to open up a chance for Paul Vines, whose right-footed curler from similar distance took a deflection and bounced agonisingly wide of the same post.

Jenkins added: “Stav was unlucky. He kept it down well, could have done better and there was a deflected one that was going in I think and it took a deflection and went out for a corner.

“We have had a couple of good half chances but overall you’ll be looking to create an awful lot more if you’re at home.”

Concord almost increased their lead at the halfway mark when right-back Ade Osifuwa played the ball through the heart of the Cray defence and the ball stuck in the mud to allow Cowley to latch on to the ball before clipping the ball out of the mud before racing clear but a poor touch after rounding Walker saw the ball run out of play to let off the Wands.

Jenkins lost holding midfielder Aaron Day to a hamstring injury and his replacement, James Fray, almost lifted the home side into life with 74 minutes on the clock.

Fray showed some urgency and released Sterling down the left and he produced an excellent whipped in cross with his left-foot which found Paul Vines unmarked at the far post but the striker planted his header over.

“It was a key moment I thought.  If that goes in, you never know,” added Jenkins.  “It was a great ball over from Tyrone, James done well, he’s an impact player. 

“We lost Aaron to a hamstring so we don’t know how bad that’s going to be, so disappointing to lose him. When you’ve got someone like James on the bench you can throw him on and hopefully he runs at players and causes a threat with his pace.”

Harris flashed a shot wide of the post from 25-yards after Phillips lost possession, before Cowley’s bullet header released Elmes straight down the middle of the pitch but Walker came out and made a vital save with his feet.

But Cray Wanderers didn’t have the quality to unlock the solid Concord Rangers back four.

“They were sitting back letting us have a bit of possession but they defended really well. There wasn’t many chances in the game but they deserved to win it.”

When asked whether Paul Vines could have been punished for his two-footed lunge on Concord left-back Danny Glozier at the death, Jenkins replied: “Not really!  I thought the referee made a lot of the challenges.  Paul got a nasty one in the face, I saw it from the line and he got up and reacted and got the ball and that’s in his nature.  I thought the referee was a bit fussy here tonight.”

But Jenkins admitted his side got what they deserved.

He added: “They were the much better side on the night, they out battled us, out played us, made it hard for us, which is fair enough.  It just didn’t really happen for us tonight.”

Cray Wanderers: Andy Walker, Billy Burgess, Tyrone Sterling, Aaron Day (James Fray 73), Mark Willy, Joe Vines, Paul Vines, Alex Stavrinou, Leigh Bremner, Danny Phillips, Michael Power.
Subs: Emmanuel Fasunan, John Estrada, Dan Parkinson, Grant Hall

Booked: Alex Stavrinou 49, Joe Vines 63

Concord Rangers: Tom Lovelock, Ade Osifuwa, Danny Glozier, Nicky Cowley, Steve King, John Easterford, Danny Spendlove, Jack Lampe, Reece Harris, Harry Elmes, Tony Stokes.
Subs: Billy Coyne, Michael Jordan, Sammy Knott, Jerome Walker, Jason Hallett

Goals: Andy Walker 17 (own goal), Tony Stokes 20

Attendance: 155
Referee: Mr Lee Venamore (Maidstone)
Assistants: Mr Christopher Myatt (Dartford) & Mr John Nazari (Wandsworth, London SW12)