The play-off's are the minimum, says Cray Wanderers assistant Paul Blade

CRAY WANDERERS assistant manager Paul Blade says the club must compete in the play-offs at the end of the season.



The Wands suffered back-to-back home 4-2 defeats to both Margate and Concord Rangers over Christmas - but they swiftly  bounced back with a 3-2 victory at Carshalton Athletic on Bank Holiday Monday.

Laurent Hamici, who quit despite finishing his sole season at the club as leading goalscorer, scored Carshalton’s second goal at Colston Avenue, but a brace from his replacement, Tommy Whitnell and Leigh Bremner gave Ian Jenkins’ side the three points.

Jenkins has put together the club’s best side for many years this season and their attacking philosophy is a joy to watch and his strikers, Whitnell (17 goals), Jack Clark (11) and Bremner (11) have scored a bag-full of goals between them.

With a trip to Canvey Island on the horizon, Cray Wanderers remain in sixth-place in the Ryman Premier League table, level on points with fifth-placed Metropolitan Police, who have three games in hand.  The Kent side are nine points adrift of league leaders Billericay Town, who have collected 49 points from 24 games.

Blade said: “We don’t want to lose ground.  Our objection is if we can’t win the league, the next expectation is to get into the play-offs.  That’s what we’ll be aiming for if we can’t win the league.

“We have lost a few too many games but everyone’s capable of beating each other, which is going to be the same right throughout the season and it’s going to be tough and the play-offs are the minimum again.

“Play-offs are a one-off game, anything can happen so the idea now is just to not to fall away from the little group.  We need to stay in the little pack and pick up points when we can.”

Cray Wanderers have lost eight of their 24 league games this season and Blade said: “It sounds a lot and it probably is but the games we have got defeated, probably apart from Hornchurch on the first day of the season and Margate (over Christmas), we’ve been in every single one and should’ve got something out of the game.

“It’s not eight defeats where we’ve been smashed or well beaten, struggling, we’ve had chances to get something from it.

“We’re a little naive now and again, we sometimes go a little bit gung-ho and we cause our own problems but that’s the way we play and we’re not going to change that.”

Visit Cray Wanderers’ website: www.craywands.co.uk  

Canvey Island  v  Cray Wanderers
Ryman Premier League
Saturday 7^th January 2012
Kick Off 3:00pm
at Park Lane, Canvey Island, Essex SS8 7PX