Cray Wanderers vs Erith Town – Pre-Season Friendly – Tuesday 30th July, 7.45 pm.
Cray Wanderers play their penultimate pre-season friendly on Tuesday 30th July as Isthmian League newcomers Erith Town are the visitors to Flamingo Park. Kick off 7.45 pm.
Cray will be looking to finish pre-season with a flourish after a busy spell of home games including matches against Bromley, Millwall and Crystal Palace sides but with one more match to come vs a Tottenham Hotspur XI on 6th August before the start of the season at Hashtag United on 10th August.
The Wands have added forwards Alex Teniola and David Smith, midfielders Charlie Edwards, Jack Leahy and Lateef Adaja and defender Quade Taylor along with a handful of retained players from last season like Shaun Rowley, David Ijaha, Tom Bonner, Nyren Clunis, Anthony Cook, Alfie Evans and Archie Johnson.
Erith Town are coming off the most successful season in the club’s history and Adam Woodward’s side will be looking forward to their first ever Isthmian South-East League season.
The Dockers last season won the SCEFL Challenge Cup beating Corinthian in the Final and also the Kent Senior Trophy for the second time after a 3-2 win against Croydon. These successes were added to when after finishing 4th in the SCEFL Premier wins against Glebe and Corinthian saw them promoted via the playoffs. Erith Town begin their season in the FA Cup Extra-Preliminary Round this Saturday at home to Pagham with their first Isthmian South-East game at home to Ashford United on 10th August. Their first ever FA Trophy tie sees a Preliminary Round trip to Farnham Town on 24th August.
Erith Town were formed in 1959 as Woolwich Town and were a Sunday league team until 1991 when the club were elected to the Spartan League 2nd Division. They achieved a couple of promotions up 1994-95 when they moved to the Kent League Premier for 1995-96 where they met the Wands in league competition.. With the club playing at Erith Stadium the club changed their name to Erith Town for the 1996-97 season and remained Kent League/SCEFL Premier mainstays until last season. Erith Town won the Premier Division Cup in 2007-08 and the Kent Senior Trophy in 2010-11. The last time the teams met competitively was in the FA Cup 2nd Qualifying Round in September 2011 with Cray winning 5-0 at Hayes Lane.
With both teams now in the final strait of pre-season this should be an entertaining game and a chance for both teams to do some fine tuning ahead of the 2024-25 season.
Admission £10 adults, £5 concessions, U18s free
