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WHYTELEAFE 3 CRAY WANDERERS 4 Ryman Division One South, Wednesday 12 March 2008 Report by Martin Hodson
This game showed everything about the Wanderers this season with regards to their team spirit and never-give-up attitude.
Cray started off the match at a blinding pace and, after a Ross Lover shot was charged down in the first minute, a header was cleared off the line from the resulting corner. Wave after wave of the amber tide surged towards the Whyteleafe goal.
After yet another shot was cleared off the line, to everyone’s surprise Whyteleafe broke away and scored on 10 minutes. Cray continued to play the more entertaining football and made the most chances but, with time ticking down towards half-time, it appeared that their efforts were not to be rewarded.
How wrong we can be! Four minutes before the interval Michael Power let fly with a shot from outside the box and the ball flew into the top corner of the net. This was quickly followed by a great move resulting in Lover shooting into the far corner of the net a minute later and yet another blistering shot on 45 minutes from Power, again from outside the box, which flew into the net in similar fashion to his first goal of the night. Three outstanding goals to go into half-time 3-1 up.
Game over?! Oh no!!
Following two great saves from Glen Knight and a header against the Cray crossbar, Cray brought three outstanding saves out of the Whyteleafe keeper. Then disaster struck ten minutes after the restart, following two defensive mistakes, and the home team capitalised on both to score twice in a minute to bring parity to the game at 3-3.
At this point Whyteleafe looked to be on top but the Wands haven’t gone this long unbeaten in the league—now standing at 23 games—without some bottle and, following another fine save by the Whyteleafe keeper, Ryan Royston headed in from the resulting corner with 90 seconds left to play.
This was another hard fought-for three points by Cray, which had the management, players and supporters celebrating after the Club leapfrogged over Tooting into second position in the league table.
Cray Wanderers: Knight, Day, Aris, Royston, Willy, Chapman, Luckett, Lover, Wood (J), Power Wood (L).
Subs: Hall, Sterling, Morris, Whitnell, Jenkins.
MOM: Michael Power
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