Cray Wanderers 3-0 Crockenhill - Support like that will make the club stronger, says Jenkins

Saturday 03rd July 2010

CRAY WANDERERS 3-0 CROCKENHILL
Pre-Season Friendly
Saturday 3rd July 2010
Stephen McCartney reports from St Mary Cray Recreation Ground

CRAY WANDERERS boss Ian Jenkins says returning back home for a day to play neighbouring Crockenhill was a success both on and off-the-field.

Crockenhill, who now play their football in Division One West of the Kent County League, may only have travelled four miles to the sun-kissed St Mary Cray Recreation Ground, but there was a wider gulf in class as the Ryman Premier League hosts dominated from start to finish.

The Wands, celebrating their 150th anniversary this season, paraded their new kit for the season - chocolate with amber pin stripes - and Jenkins fielded a strong fifteen-man squad, with a number of new faces that impressed the crowd of around 400 during their opening warm-up game.

One of those new men, midfielder, Danny Phillips, 23, bagged a brace on his club debut and Jenkins told www.kentishfootball.co.uk afterwards that he has high hopes for the former Sutton United versatile midfielder.

“He’s different class mate,” beamed Jenkins. “He’s going to be a free sort of player for us. He’s going to play in all certain positions. He’s going to be a player who makes us tick, especially early on in the season when we play on really good pitches.

“We’ve not got much in the way of height but we’ve got a lot of good, technical footballers out there, which I like, and I want them to play football the way it should be played.”

Cray Wanderers created - and missed - a whole number of chances and if it wasn’t for visiting goalkeeper Colin Barnes, who made around ten saves, the Wands would have chalked up a cricket score, such was their dominance throughout.

However, it took the Wands 36 minutes to break Crockenhill’s resilience - but it was a goal worth waiting for!

Chris Saunders (a summer signing from Maidstone United) drove a cross into the penalty area from the right and Frankie Sawyer (with his back to goal) cut the ball back intelligently for the unmarked Phillips, who from inside the box, had time and space to float a left-footed chip over Barnes into the top corner.

Phillips doubled the lead seven minutes after the interval, when his cross-come-shot from the left flank embarrassed Barnes as the ball evaded a couple of players ghosting in at the far post.

The Wands had to settle for three - although Sawyer later had a goal chalked off for offside - when three of their substitutes combined in the 65th minute to seal the convincing win.

Adam Cotterill’s drove in a cross from the right, which was flicked on by Steve Lazano for Shane Graham to rifle his shot into the roof of the net from six-yards at the far post.

But give plucky Crockenhill their credit, they too, like Cray Wanderers, went into this game with one training session under their belt, if you can call it that.

But assistant manager, Ray Williams, told www.kentishfootball.co.uk that he was proud that his side had restricted their illustrious neighbours to just three goals.

He said: “They played well. It was good to watch, entertaining. I think we did a fair job considering that we’re about four League’s below them, which wasn’t bad.

“Hopefully we’ll play a friendly with them next year.”

When asked about Barnes’ heroics, Williams replied, “Well, we’ve got some good goalkeepers so whoever we had played in goal it would’ve still been three. They can make good saves as well. That’s what they’re there for!”

When asked about last Tuesday’s training session, Williams said they didn’t take it too seriously.

He added: “Not actually a training session, just get a feel of the ball and go through things we finished on last year.”

Crockenhill started with a defensive 4-5-1 formation, leaving lone striker, Michael Bishop, struggling to pick up scraps.

Cray skipper Mark Willy slotted in at left-back, due to the returning Tyrone Sterling unavailable through illness. Hard-working striker, Leigh Bremner, who was also missing through illness, and Ross Lover will go for a scan on his injured ankle this week, having missed Thursday night’s training session.

Bishop was forced to try his luck from distance during the second half in Crockenhill’s two only chances - but goalkeeper, Scott Chalmers-Stevens, 24, was equal to them on both occasion, tipping one over the bar.

With last season’s stopper, Jack Smelt, being offered a deal by his former club, Mersham, Chalmers-Stevens, who played for Ashford Town last season, will be told by Jenkins whether he has a future at Hayes Lane.

Jenkins said: “Scott’s going to speak to Tony Dolby at Hastings as well. He’s either going to sign for us or them.

“I’m still waiting on Tony Kessell to come back to me and say whether he can commit himself to the season. If that’s the case, I’ve just spoken to Scotty anyway, Kess will be my keeper but I need to know sooner rather than later.

“I don’t want to lose someone as good as Scott as well, so I’ll be letting him know Monday who’s going, either way.

“I can only have one keeper anyway. We haven’t got a reserve side that plays at a good level, so you can’t be asking a decent keeper to play in our reserves.”

On Smelt’s situation, Jenkins added: “Smelty’s got a chance to go to Merstham and I think he’ll probably go there. They offered him a bit better package than we have but Kess is an experienced keeper, so is Scotty and they’re not going to cost me the world.”

The return of right-winger Mark Hammond inspired Cray Wanderers during his impressive 45 minute stint during the first half - and Jenkins is pleased to have him back at the club.

“I love Hammo, he’s brilliant,” said Jenkins. “He’s life is settled now, he’s got a nice flat, he’s got a good job, a nice girlfriend, he’s settling down, so he’s giving it one more go.

“Having Hammo around is good for the club. There’s loads of banter about him. He’s a Cray man, always has been. I’ve known him for years, I’ve known him since he was a kit. I know what he’s all about, he knows what I’m all about.”

Jenkins hopes to re-jig his budget to be in a position to sign Sawyer.

He said: “I probably will sign him, he’s a good lad, he scores goals. We need someone like that as well to link up with Brems (Bremner) and Laurent (Hamici) so it’s going to be hard to keep players like that happy, with the money that I’m going to offer them.”

Today’s exercise proved worthwhile for both parties.

When asked what he learnt by playing a side four league’s higher, Williams replied: “They’re a lot fitter than us! When we play in our level we play as good as they did today.

“As you can see, at times we played some good football. We decided to play one up front first half, which probably restricted us a little bit from playing our normal football. We tried to keep the score down really and to be fair it worked in the first half.

“We changed it in the second half, went to two up front and they probably got more of a run of the ball. We tired near the end but we done well.

“I was more than pleased with all the players.”

Cray Wanderers scored a public relations victory by playing today’s game in their own backyard - and Jenkins hopes for a similar amount turn out against Leyton Orient on Wednesday 14 July - seven miles away at Hayes Lane in Bromley.

The east London club signed teenager George Porter (who was watching today’s game) from the Wands during the summer.

“I was well pleased with our fitness levels, they’ve come back pretty fit, the players I’ve got back and the session we had Thursday, yes, they’ve done well,” said Jenkins.

“We was always going to win it. At the end of the day we were playing a team a lot lower to us but fair play to Crockenhill, they looked very organised and fairly fit themselves, for a team that’s only probably trained once.

“The result doesn’t really matter too much in friendlies. It’s good to get a clean-sheet, no matter who you’re playing and I like to do that. It’s a solid base at the back.

“It’s great to see loads of people down here today, fantastic! A good turn out, 400 people down here so it all works in Cray’s favour, I think today.

“It was great when we scored the first goal and the amount of people who cheered. If you’ve got that sort of fan base (at Hayes Lane) week in, week out, then the club can only get stronger as a team and as a club and you’ll get more money through the turnstiles and more money to get better players.”

Cray Wanderers: Scott Chalmers-Stevens, Mark Hammond (Steve Lazano 46), Fraser Cronin (Gio Fulloni 46), Allan McLeod, Mark Willy, John Guest, Chris Saunders, Aaron Day (Adam Cotterill 58), Frankie Sawyer, Laurent Hamici, Danny Phillips (Shane Graham 58).

Goals: Danny Phillips 36, 52, Shane Graham 65

Crockenhill: Colin Barnes, Danny Jeffery (Bradley Knight 46), Chris Ring, Billy Martin, Skye Britain (Daniel Tarrant 46), Steve Turner, Jamie Knox (Danny Yates 46), Stuart O’Toole, Michael White, Michael Bishop, Mark Bishop (Michael Morgan 67).

Attendance: 400
Referee: Mr Andy Mead (St Mary Cray)
Assistants: Mr Freddie Collins (Beckenham) & Mr Jeff Lengthorn (New Eltham)