I really, really truly believe we’re going to stay up, says Mike Paye

CRAY WANDERERS’ assistant manager Mike Paye says the aim is to keep the club in the Ryman Premier League at the end of the season.

Manager Keith Bird and Paye took over from legendary boss Ian Jenkins – who was in at the club for 24 years, the last 14 of them as manager – in early October from landlords Bromley, where the pair managed their reserve side, with the task of avoiding the club’s first ever relegation.

The Wands remain in the bottom two in the table with 11 points from 18 games but the side enjoyed a morale-boosting 5-1 home win over Dulwich Hamlet in the League Cup Third Round at Hayes Lane on Tuesday night, which went down a treat ahead of Saturday’s home game against Billericay Town.

The Essex side are in fourteenth-place in the table, with 22 points from 17 games and Paye wants three points to begin their climb up the table because they are five points adrift of safety.

Paye says he is looking to bring in fresh blood into the squad to boost their survival chances.

He said: “We’ve learnt that this is a good standard, a very good standard and it’s down to the players that you can get down to the club, but obviously the chairman’s trying to get the best players for us and giving us a little bit of a budget.

“I know we haven’t got a lot but we’ve got a little bit of budget to get the players’ here.

“That’s been the hardest thing to get players to come to a bottom of the league club but I think once they get to see how Keith and I work hopefully we’ll get the right players to this club.”

The club have brought in two central midfielders on loan in the shape of Steve Smith (Bromley) and Jack Sherratt (Leyton Orient) and both impressed against Dulwich Hamlet in their last game.

“Steve Smith is a big signing because I think the players will look at him and see his quality and then they’ll want to play with him so that’s the main thing really,” said Paye.

When asked how many points the club need to beat the drop, Paye replied: “About 50, I think, which is going to be a tall order but if we start playing and carry on what we’ve started here, I really, really truly believe we’re going to do it.

“We need a couple of new players but if we get the quality coming to join with the quality that we’ve got, then we’ll get there.”

Looking ahead to Saturday’s game against Billericay Town, who have gone seven games without a win, Paye said: “We’ve got to get the players’ fit. I don’t think we need to get the players’ up, but we will get them up for Saturday. We’re at home. We’ll be disappointed if we don’t some points on Saturday.

“What the boys need to do, they need to believe that they can play against the top clubs. I think on Tuesday against Dulwich we’ve started to believe that we can.

“If we can cut out the silly mistakes because we’re not conceding during play, we’re actually conceding set-plays.  Cut the silly mistakes out and then we’ll turn the corner.”

The new managerial pairing have won four of their 11 games in charge of the club in all competitions since taking over from Jenkins, Joe Francis and Paul Blade.

“We know it was very, very difficult. Jenko’s been here for many years and done very well and I know he’s a close friend of the chairman as well,” said Paye.

“It was something that – when we was offered the job – that we really wanted. We feel we can do it at this level. Keith played at Sutton United for many years. I was at Charlton when I was younger and played for Cray and Dartford and others.

“We’ve got a good footballing calibre. It was something that unfortunately they lost, I think, nine out of eleven games and the chairman’s obviously made the decision to make some changes.

“I was at Charlton with Joe Francis when we was younger. I’ve got the utmost respect for both of them for what they’ve done for this club.”

Visit Cray Wanderers’ website: www.pitchero.com/clubs/craywands

Cray Wanderers  v  Billericay Town

Ryman Premier League

Saturday 30^th November 2013

Kick Off 3:00pm

At Hayes Lane, Bromley, Kent BR2 9EF