We have to try to save the club from relegation, says Keith Bird

CRAY WANDERERS manager Keith Bird says he is going to give it a really good go after Christmas to beat the drop at the end of the season.



Bird and his assistant Mike Paye left Bromley’s reserve team management to take over at Cray Wanderers after the club parted company with Ian Jenkins at the end of September with the club struggling at the wrong end of the Ryman Premier League table.

The pair have signed a number of players and Bird believes he will have a settled squad in place after the festive programme.

The Wands welcome Hendon to Hayes Lane tonight sitting at the foot of the table with 11 points from 21 games and are nine points adrift of safety.

Hendon, meanwhile, arrive at Hayes Lane sitting in 15^th place in the table with 27 points from 20 games.

Bird issued a statement on the club’s website and said: “First of all I want to say a big thank you for the warm welcome that we have received from the fans, committee, players and all connected with the club.

“Obviously the position we inherited at the bottom of the table, and the fact that we have the smallest playing budget in the league, have caused some to call this mission impossible.

“It's true that we certainly have an uphill battle on our hands but we are committed to do our very best with the very limited budget we have to try to save the club from relegation.

“We were obviously very pleased with the first two games getting two wins in a row and also a further two wins against big clubs Lowestoft Town in the League and Dulwich Hamlet in the League Cup.

“The vast majority of fixtures since taking over have unfortunately been against opposition in the top half of the table but even so we have been very competitive in most of these and have been very unlucky not to get points out of most of those we have lost.”

The Wands have lost their last two games to Kingstonian and Canvey Island by the same 4-0 scoreline.

Bird said: “The Canvey Island game in particular was a tough day in the office. First goal was a bizarre own goal, second goal was a penalty that never was and the third was clearly offside. The thing that really killed the game was the extraordinarily strong wind against us in the second half when we just couldn't get the ball out of our own half (even our keeper Charlie Grainger who has a very strong goal kick couldn't get the ball over the half way line).

“We now look to bounce back with two games at home against Hendon tonight and Leiston on Saturday.

“Helge Orome is now eligible for selection again after being suspended through a harsh sending off and Jack Sharrat should be back from injury in the next week or two. Both have been missed so we are looking forward to getting them back into the squad.”

Only six players, Aaron Day, Tommy Whitnell, Jack Clark, Alex Stavrinou, Rhys Coleman and Danny Young remain from the Jenkins era.

“All six have been a pleasure to work with and created an initial back bone that we could build from,” said Bird.

“We were very disappointed to have to part company with Cray Wanderers goalkeeper stalwart Andy Walker. This was purely for financial reasons given the limited playing budget available to us. We are really pleased to see, as expected, that Andy is doing so well for his new club.

“Our first new signings included Carlos Talbot, Helge Orome, Dmitri Larin, Gary Beckett, Anthony Bardon, Dan Hughes and Mac Owusu.

“We worked with all of them at Bromley reserves and most featured to one degree or another in the Conference South for Bromley’s first team.

“This was closely followed by the signing of three highly talented young players on loan from Leyton Orient, Charlie Grainger (goalkeeper), Jack Sharrat (midfielder) and Elyon Marshall–Katung (striker).

“We next signed experienced Non League players Jason Henry, Adrian Stone and Nathan Simpson.

“We then strengthened the squad further with the loan signing from Bromley of Irish U21 international Steve Smith.

“This week we were delighted that we added further strength to the squad with the signings of highly regarded and experienced defender Ugo Udoji (from Conference Premier side Salisbury City) and the up and coming talented young Bromley player Tom O'Connor (who skippers their Academy side)

“As you can see a lot of hard work has gone into building our new look squad in a short period of time with the limited financial resources we have available to us.

“We are effectively doing all the things you would normally use pre season for (assessing players, assessing systems, signing new players etc) in real time while we are trying to pick up points at the same time.

“We set ourselves a target to finalise these things by Christmas so that we can start the New Year with the squad finalised and give the second half of the season a really good go. We are very much on track to achieve that.”

Article courtesy of www.pitchero.com/clubs/craywands

Cray Wanderers  v  Hendon
Ryman Premier League
Tuesday 17^th December 2013
Kick Off 7:45pm
At Hayes Lane, Bromley, Kent BR2 9EF