Kentish Football 
Cray Wanderers 1-3 Billericay Town - I'm not throwing in the towel, says Ian Jenkins
Tuesday 22nd March 2011
CRAY WANDERERS 1-3 BILLERICAY TOWN
Ryman Premier League
Tuesday 22nd March 2011
Stephen McCartney reports from Hayes Lane
CRAY WANDERERS boss Ian Jenkins says he is keeping faith with veteran Dave King - after the goalkeeper’s blunder dented the club’s push towards the Ryman Premier League play-off’s.
Cray Wanderers dominated early on without scoring but an excellent solo run from Martin Allen’s son, Charlie, grabbed Billericay Town the lead - against the run of play - in the 27th minute, but the loss of influential skipper Mark Willy was a blow to the home side.
The Wands pulled a goal back just before the break through striker Leigh Bremner, before it all went wrong for the hosts, as long-ball side Billericay Town leapfrogged over Tonbridge Angels into third place with two second half goals from striker Tony Boot.
“It was a good first half,” said an upbeat Jenkins afterwards. “We had a good tempo about us and then we got back from going a goal down. Brilliant!
“But then you’ve only got to look at officials’ really to be honest with you. It was four yards offside, their second goal, I don’t care what anyone says. That was an absolute shocking decision by the linesman!
“What can you do about the third? Kingy’s made a massive error, so two mistakes second half, by the official and our goalkeeper. It could’ve been different. It could’ve been one-all.”
Cray Wanderers started this must-win game on the front foot, keeping possession and dominating the opening twenty minutes, and Ross Lover and Laurent Hamici forced visiting keeper Nick Morgan into making low saves as they centred the ball across goal.
Cray Wanderers really should have opened the scoring after eight minutes when Jack Clarke whipped in a free-kick from 35-yards, which was spilt by Morgan, but the keeper made amends as he plucked Bremner’s instinctive flicked header out of the air beside the post.
Lover then swung in a corner from the left, which was met by Willy, but the solid central defender planted his header over from four-yards out, and didn’t last longer than half-an-hour due to an injury to his right-knee, and was replaced by the versatile Tyrone Sterling, who slotted in beside John Guest at the heart of defence for the rest of the game.
Willy, who injured his knee at Margate on Boxing Day, will know the extent of his injury tomorrow, but Jenkins expects bad news.
“Same again. I don’t know how bad it is. He’ll let us know tomorrow,” reported a concerned Jenkins.
“It looks pretty (bad), not as bad when it happened before but it kept him out for seven or eight weeks before, so if he can get back between now and the end of the season I’ll be happy, but it looks pretty bad.
“You’re going to miss your skipper, he’s a leader at the end of the day. Tyrone came in and he’s done really well for us covering for Wills when he started but coming off the bench is always hard as a centre half to get straight into the game.
“It’s just unfortunate really. We’re going to miss Wills.”
Three players wore the captain’s armband tonight, Willy (31 minutes), Lover (46) and then Bremner (13).
Morgan made his best save of the game in the fourteenth minute, diving full length low to his left to prevent Lover scoring with a left-footed shot on the turn.
But Billericay grabbed the lead, through sheer brilliance from central midfielder Allen, who went on an excellent fine solo 60-yard run before flat-footing King.
With Cray attacking, Allen picked the ball up inside his own half and burst forward down the middle of the pitch, cut in and continued his run down the left channel. He was lucky to get away with barging right-back Joe Vines out of the way, before cutting inside and stroking a right-footed shot, which took a deflection to flat-foot King to find the back of the net from eight-yards out.
If the goal was scored in the Premier League and in front of the TV cameras then all of the pundits would have hailed it goal of the season.
Jenkins’ take on it was, “Brilliant goal! Different class! When he picked it up about ten yards outside our area and he just run with it. At the end the composure he showed in our box skipping past two tackles and the finish - it was a great goal!
“It was a worldy at the end of the day. You hold your hands up to that sort of stuff.
“The other two goals, you can’t live with them. It was embarrassing!”
That goal stunned Cray Wanderers, as Billericay Town gained the upper hand, creating some decent chances before the break.
James Lawson floated in a cross from the right, which was met by a looping header from Chris Wild, and King (who was standing on his line) tipped the ball over the crossbar.
With Willy now off the pitch through injury, Lawson swung in a corner from the right, which was met by Wild and he headed the ball down and across King but left-back Alex Bentley was on hand to hack the ball off the line.
Wild, the Billericay central defender, was forced off the pitch on three occasions to adjust his bandaging, which protected a head injury he sustained at the weekend, but he bravely lasted three minutes longer than the home side’s number five.
But Bremner’s ninth-goal of the season forced Cray Wanderers back into the game in the 44th minute.
Billericay right-back, Junior Luke, was booked for a challenge on Clarke, and Lover curled a low bouncing free-kick towards the near post and Bremner got across his marker and stuck out his right leg to steer the ball into the top left-hand corner from three yards.
“Leigh’s got across his marker, which is what we say to him every week. Get across your marker, you’re going to get your rewards because the delivery we put in from Clarky and Rossy is different class. There’s not a better delivery in the league,” said Jenkins.
“It’s a centre forwards goal. He should be doing that more often!”
Jenkins added: “If you look at his goals’ per game ratio it’s nine in about sixteen starts something like that. He hasn’t had that many starts because he had a serious injury.
“I’m not too disappointed with Leigh’s goalscoring attributes. He gets enough for me. He works his socks off.”
King made his second finger-tip save just before the break to prevent big and pacy striker Cedric Ngakam scoring with his right-foot - before it all went wrong during a one-sided second half.
Jenkins was fuming that Boot’s first goal was allowed to stand in the 48th minute.
The striker appeared to be yards offside as he was released down the right channel and to add insult to injury, he curled a low shot with the outside of his right-boot, which flashed across King and bounced off the foot of the far post and arrowed into the back of the net.
“The boy’s gone up with an header with our player, they all scream for a foul, they have. The fella’s flicked it on to a bloke who is standing four yards offside and he’s gone on and scored,” bemoaned the Cray boss.
“What’s the linesman doing? He’s looking for a foul, he should be doing his job, looking at the offside. Let the referee deal with fouls!
“It should never have been a goal. Everyone around says it’s four yards offside!”
Five minutes later, King stuck out a strong left hand to turn Allen’s angled right-footed drive from a tight angle around his near post.
Referee Mr Stuart Butler pointed to the spot to award Billericay a 71st minute penalty - only to change his mind after consulting his assistant, Mark Graves.
Boot went sprawling to the ground as King came rushing out of his goal to smother the ball and Mr Butler pointed to the spot and King feared that he was going to be sent-off.
But Mr Graves flagged and after consulting the referee, the penalty decision was wiped out and Boot was shown a yellow card and Cray were awarded with a free-kick.
“I think he got that spot on,” said Jenkins. “He had a couple of errors tonight, which they do, but you get the big ones right, we don’t moan and he got the big one right with the penalty because he dived. You could see him dive.
“Kingy came out, he went to ground a bit too early and the fella’s left his legs in there and Kingy’s pulled his hands away.
“It looked like a dive from where we were but if he gives a penalty I’m not moaning to be honest with you because if my players do that and we get a penalty I take it on the chin.
“Fair play to the linesman, he’s put his flag up and over-ruled it and the referee’s come up and had a chat with him.”
The Wands faithful later wished that the former Tooting & Mitcham United keeper was sent-off as he made an 81st minute blunder, which sealed the three points for the Essex side.
Sterling rolled the ball back towards the goalkeeper from the left-back position but King made a complete hash of it and took a touch too many - and Boot pounced and rolled the ball into an empty net.
But Jenkins refused to blame his goalkeeper for his mistake.
“Did he (Sterling) need to pas the ball back to Dave? I don’t know. It took a bit of a bobble. He tried to do a trick, he’s a goalkeeper at the end of the day. The geezer’s read it, he’s closed it down and he made a tackle, gone in for a challenge on him and he’s scored.”
And King will be in between the sticks for the trip to Croydon Athletic on Saturday, a game which will see the return of midfielder Danny Phillips, who wasn’t risked tonight, following an Achilles injury.
Jenkins was asked if he was happy with his current number one and he replied, “Of course I am! He wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t. I’m not that sort of manager who sticks with people I’m not happy with.
“He’s got a tremendous personality the fella, he’s a good keeper. He’s made a blip there. If you looked at the game against Lowestoft (where we won 1-0 away from home), he’s had a decent game, not a worldy, but he done everything a goalkeeper should do, pulled off some important saves so one week he does that, next week he’s a villain, so I’m happy with Dave.”
In fact, Jenkins says he is happy with all of his current squad and explained why he isn’t delving into the transfer market before the transfer deadline at the end of the month.
“No. I’m not looking at all, to be honest with you,” he said. “I’m happy with what I’ve got. The budget doesn’t help me to get anyone in. If I did bring someone in I’d have to release. I shouldn’t be getting anyone in. I’ve got a big enough squad of 18-19 players.”
Tonight’s set-back sees Cray Wanderers drop down a place to eleventh in the table - five points adrift of the play-off’s, with eight games remaining.
Whilst most fans feel their play-off dreams are over, Jenkins still believes.
He said: “If supporters’ are thinking that, then their not really Cray supporters as a far as I’m concerned. You only have to look at the league table and see the distance between us and fifth-place.
“What stops us winning four or five games out the ones we’ve got left, to put ourselves in it?
“The squad I’ve got here is good enough, don’t worry about that! They’re good enough. If they’re not good enough for this league, they’ll be strong enough for next year but whilst we’re still mathematically, the old cliché’s, let’s go for it, because I think we’re good enough.
“If there was one game left and we were 10 points behind, I would never throw in the towel. I’d make sure we were professionally up for it. I’ll never be like that. Always a never-say-die attitude. I’d rather go for it.
“It’s just one of those things. We’ve had a bit of a blip tonight. We’ll bounce back Saturday (kicking off at 1pm), no doubt.”
Cray Wanderers: Dave King, Joe Vines, Alex Bentley, Chris Saunders, Mark Willy (Tyrone Sterling 31), John Guest, Ross Lover (Tasser Hussain 77), Aaron Day, Laurent Hamici, Leigh Bremner, Jack Clarke (Carl Gibbs 90).
Subs: Allan McLeod, Tony Dolby
Goal: Leigh Bremner 44
Booked: Chris Saunders 24, Alex Bentley 67, John Guest 90
Billericay Town: Nick Morgan, Junior Luke, Ian Cousins, Charlie Allen, Chris Wild (Ryan O’Rawe 34), Adam Flanagan, Benson Kpaka, Micha Hyde, Cedric Ngakam, James Lawson (Jordan Hibbert 83), Tony Boot.
Subs: Harrison Chatting, Sean Bennett-Johnson, Ashlee Jones
Goals: Charlie Allen 27, Tony Boot 48, 82
Booked: Junior Luke 43, Charlie Allen 65, Tony Boot 71
Attendance: 191
Referee: Mr Stuart Butler (Maidstone)
Assistants: Mr Mark Graves (Margate) & Mr Nick Harnett (Ramsgate)
Red Dragon I.T. Ltd