Kentish Football 
Cray Wanderers 1-0 South Park - Last-gasp Laurent Hamici delivers South Park a knock out punch
Sunday 12th September 2010
CRAY WANDERERS 1-0 SOUTH PARK
FA Cup (Sponsored by E.ON) First Qualifying Round
Sunday 12th September 2010
Stephen McCartney reports from Hayes Lane
FRENCHMAN Laurent Hamici was the hero as his last-gasp strike averted a humiliating result against a negative South Park side that play THREE league’s lower than them in the second tier of the Combined Counties League.
Hamici’s seventh goal of the season was perfectly timed as he drove a right-footed shot through the legs of goalkeeper James Wastell. The goal was timed at 46:15 - the referee blew the final whistle just 163 seconds after Hamici match-winning strike, which saw him mobbed by ecstatic team-mates beside the touchline.
South Park parked the team bus in front of their goal and if it wasn’t for the heroics of experienced keeper Wastell then Cray’s margin of victory would have been greater.
But Cray Wanderers were reduced to ten-men when Essex based referee Jonathan Pickford showed central midfielder Chris Saunders a straight red-card for a two footed lunge after just 15 minutes.
The Kent side found the Reigate visitors a hard nut to crack against a resilient South Park defence, who didn’t offer anything further up the pitch, but assistant manager Paul Blade was clearly a relieved man when greedy Hamici popped up to book a place in the Second Qualifying Round of the FA Cup, banking £3,000 in prize money.
“I thought we created enough chances within the game to win it comfortably,” Blade told www.kentishfootball.co.uk afterwards.
“Full credit to them, they had a go. I thought we got our just rewards at the end of the game. It doesn’t matter when you score, we’ll take the one-nil and it gets us into the hat for the next round.”
Praising Hamici, Blade added: “He’s a goalscorer, he’s a natural goalscorer. There’s things on his game that we need to work on, but he’s a natural goalscorer and he gets into the box and scores and long may it continue!”
Cray Wanderers were refused permission to play Lewis Perkins as Charlton Athletic didn’t want the striker cup-tied, so Frankie Sawyer started his first game of the season to partner Hamici up front.
The Wands should have taken the lead inside the opening eight minutes when Sawyer’s pass was flicked across the box by Hamici and Steve Lozano’s lay off was driven across goal by Danny Phillips, which was parried by Wastell and defender Justin David was on hand to prevent the ball trickling over the line.
Blade felt Saunders was harshly red-carded as both Saunders and Kieran Lavery slid in to contest a 50-50 ball.
He said: “I felt it was very harsh. Obviously the referee saw it as a two-footed lunge. Where we was it looked a 50-50 ball that was there to be won. The player (Lavery) got up and come back onto the pitch. I think it was a little bit of fourth official in the crowd, being assessed, and the game getting to him a little bit, but we’re disappointed with it, it spoilt the game as well. Eleven-versus-eleven might have seen a better game than what it was.
“Hopefully they’ve (ITV Sport) got it on video. It will be nice if we can have a little look at it at some point to see if he had made the right decision. I think he got the wrong decision but there’s not a lot we can do about it.
“We’ll have a look at the video. If we see what we thought we saw and if it seems that way and it’s different to what the referee saw and then we’ll take it as far as we can.”
Despite having a man advantage, South Park failed to venture forward as strikers Daniel Mottram and George Smith couldn’t get any change against Cray’s solid central defensive pairing of John Guest and Mark Willy.
Cray Wanderers were brought down to South Park’s lowly level - a club that hit the headlines 28 days ago for the shocking violence following their win at Greenwich Borough, about half-a-mile away at Oakley Road.
South Park showed their park status in the 32nd minute when following a nice flowing move, Karl Parker cut inside left-back Alex Bentley before teeing up Lavery, whose right-footed shot from 20-yards ballooned into the five-a-side pitches behind the goal.
Wastell made his second fine block to block Sawyer’s left-footed driven shot after Lozano slipped the ball through.
South Park’s first shot on target arrived a minute before half-time when substitute Chris Smith and Daniel Mottram combined down the left and Smith’s angled left-footed drive was gathered at the third attempt by keeper Dave King at his near post.
A right-wing cross from busy midfielder Allan McLeod was met by a looping header from Hamici, which dropped just in front of the post and allowed Wastell to collect.
Parker latched onto a through ball but blasted wide of the near post, which sparked fury from the home faithful, one fan screamed out “Come on Cray, you’re better than this!”
Ross Lover was the next player to be thwarted by Wastell, who beated out the right-footed drive from 25-yards after a move involving Willy and Phillips within the opening seven minutes of the second half.
Cray Wanderers really should have broken South Park’s resilience in the 58th minute when Lover’s throw was flicked into McLeod’s path by Hamici and his right-wing cross found Sawyer unmarked at the far post but he powered his bullet header over from six-yards.
Sawyer was then denied by another fine block from the busy South Park keeper and Hamici’s follow up drive was blocked by a defender.
South Park’s one-man show, Wastell made a two fine saves to prevent Lover from breaking the net in the 74th minute. His right-footed drive from 25-yards forced the bald headed keeper into making a full-length save to his left and within a minute the keeper beat out an angled drive from the Cray right-back.
Was it going to be one of those days?
Despite all those Cray chances, South Park almost grabbed the win late on.
Parker was played in behind the Cray defence and thankfully he kicked thin air as he swept his left-foot towards the ball, but he managed to retain the ball inside the box (with three Cray defenders swarming around him), he dragged his shot across the goal-line and past the far post.
But Hamici delivered the knock-out PUNCH - pure justice as the FA should have thrown South Park out off the competition following the SHOCKING scenes at Oakley Road.
There was a relief all around Hayes Lane when Hamici pushed substitute Carl Gibbs out of the way, following Phillips’ low centre from the right, and his right-footed shot from 12-yards rolled through the keeper’s legs and Cray Wanderers go into tomorrow’ draw for the Second Qualifying Round.
“No disrespect to them, three leagues lower on paper, we were expected to win the game, but FA Cup is that. It does spring surprises,” added Blade.
Yesterday, Ryman Premier League leaders Sutton United were dumped out of the FA Cup by an Alton Town side that are second from bottom in the top-flight off the Wessex League and Maidstone United lost away to Ryman League Division One South side Whitehawk and here in Kent Tonbridge Angels suffered a smash-and-grab raid by Combined Counties League outfit Guildford City to stun Longmead Stadium.
Blade added: “You only have to look at results yesterday, the amount of good sides that went out to lower division sides so that was our team talk before. We didn’t want to be one of those teams going out. We wanted to be in the next round. I think on reflection on the whole game we deserved to win the game.
“You think it’s going to be one of those days. They parked the bus in front of us, the keeper’s making worldy’s and you think you think they’re going to get one little chance, one silly mistake and they’re going to nick it and they had the chance. I think he (Parker) was thinking about his celebration before he scored so thankful we got away with that and we went up the other end and scored so we’re more than happy.”
Talk around Hayes Lane afterwards was that the club want to avoid a local Blue Square Bet South club in the next round - Bromley, Dartford, Dover Athletic, Ebbsfleet United and Welling United enter the competition at the next stage in thirteen days time.
“We’re more than happy to get into the next round, to be in the hat,” said Blade.
“The next round’s worth four and a half thousand. We had a poor FA Cup last year so financially it helps all clubs. If we can go as far as we can, put some more money into the club and hopefully if that can be used to strengthen or whatever needs to be done within the team then hopefully that will happen.”
The Second Oldest Football Club in the World are celebrating their 150th anniversary - but have never reached the first round proper of the FA Cup before - the closest was when then Conference club Grays Athletic knocked them out in the fourth and final qualifying round five years ago.
“Fingers crossed, hopefully we can get into the first round proper,” added Blade “It will be worth even more money. It will be brilliant, it will be great for the club financially, status, the press we’d get.”
Cray Wanderers: Dave King, Ross Lover, Alex Bentley (Tyrone Sterling 81), Chris Saunders, Mark Willy, John Guest, Allan McLeod (Adam Cottrell 71), Frankie Sawyer (Carl Gibbs 71), Laurent Hamici, Danny Phillips, Steve Lozano.
Subs: Kieran McCann, Richard Whyte, Ian Jenkins, Sam Wright.
Goal: Laurent Hamici 90
Booked: Steve Lazano 45
Sent off: Chris Saunders 15
South Park: James Wastell, Jerry O’Sullivan, Gareth Whiting-Balcombe, Justin David (Jamie David 69), Steve Wilson, Karl Parker, Daniel Mottram, Michael Smith (Chris Smith 28), George Smith, Kieran Lavery, Daniel Stone.
Subs: Harry Mullard, Mark Ward, Ben Smythe.
Booked: Karl Parker 11, Kieran Livery 90
Attendance: 217
Referee: Mr Jonathan Pickford (Leigh-on-Sea, Essex)
Assistants: Mr Martin Quinn (Romford, Essex) & Mr Patrick Shanahan (Romford, Essex)
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