Cray Wanderers vs Dartford – London Senior Cup Quarter Final – Tuesday 16th April, 7.45 pm – Match Preview
Cray Wanderers go into a final week of matches at Hayes Lane starting with a London Senior Cup Quarter-Final vs Dartford on Tuesday 16th April. Kick off: 7.45 pm. Please note the game will be decided on penalties if level after 90 minutes for the right to visit Hendon in the Semi-Finals on 23rd April. Met Police host holders Charlton Athletic U23s in the other semi-final on 25th April with the final scheduled for Tuesday 30th April.
Both teams will be coming into the game looking for form to complete the season on a high. Cray are without a win in six league games but had done more than enough in January, February and March to confirm safety in the Isthmian Premier for 2024-25. On Saturday the Wands were beaten 0-2 at promotion chasing Horsham despite having the likes of Frankie Raymond, George Porter and Tom Beere missing. There were positives with some fine performances from young players like George Brooke, Alfie Evans, Emmanuel Kwatchey, Enoch Muwonge, Charlie Paye and the bonus of Nyren Clunis getting half an hour in the second half.
Cray end the league season with two more games to follow against Bognor Regis Town at home on Saturday 20th April and then at Dulwich Hamlet on 27th April and are currently 16th on 47 points.
The Wands have reached the Quarter-Finals after two wins at home against Tooting & Mitcham United (4-2) and Fisher (3-0) and is a competition where Cray have twice reached the Semi-Finals in 2011-12 and 2012-13.
Dartford will also be looking to end the season on a high following relegation from the National South which was confirmed last Saturday at Champions Yeovil Town. Ady Pennock’s side have 43 points from 45 games played and in 22nd place and will next season be league opponents for the Wands in the Isthmian Premier for the first time since the 2009-10 season.
The Darts have reached the Quarter-Finals also after two home ties beating Harrow Borough (1-0) and Queens Park Rangers U21s on penalties after a 1-1 draw. Neither Cray or Dartford have ever won the competition or reached a final so there could still be new ground reached this season despite being difficult for both clubs.
After some high profile cup games against Dartford in the 1960’s there weren’t any meetings between the sides until three seasons of league games in the Kent League in the mid 1990’s. Then after a Kent Senior Cup tie in December 2005, one season in the Isthmian Division One in 2006-07 where Cray won 4-0 at Hayes Lane and one season in the Isthmian Premier in 2009-10 but the sides did meet in the FA Cup 3rd Qualifying Round on 15th October 2011 with Dartford winning 2-1 and on 18th December 2021 in the 3rd Round of the FA Trophy with Dartford winning 3-1. The teams played in successive seasons at Hayes Lane in the Kent Senior Cup with Dartford winning 2-1 in 2016-17 but the following season Cray won 4-2 with a Ralique Lawrence hat-trick and a Michael Power penalty.
BROMLEY, GREATER LONDON, ENGLAND – DECEMBER 18: Cray Wanderers’s Fjord Rogers headstone ball at goal during The Buildbase FA Trophy match between Cray Wanderers and Dartford at Hayes Lane on December 18, 2021 in Bromley, Greater London, England . (Photo: © Jon Hilliger / HilligerPix)
Relations between Cray and Dartford have been positive. When Dartford left the Southern League in the 1992-93 season and re-formed in the Kent League the following season, both clubs shared the Wands old Oxford Road ground in Sidcup allowing the fledgling Dartford club to find its feet. Years later in August 2009 on a Friday night, Cray Wanderers played a home league game at Dartford’s Princes Park ground vs Billericay Town when Hayes Lane wasn’t available.
Cray’s first home cup tie at Hayes Lane was on 12th September 1998 vs Abingdon United in the FA Vase which Cray lost 0-1 and the first of 125 cup ties played and Tuesday night will see an end of an era of games often played under the lights as Cray Wanderers head to a new era at Flamingo Park.
Admission £10/£5 on gate (cash only) or online at www.cray-wanderers.com/tickets/
