Cray Wanderers look to bounce back quickly after the dramatic events of Sunday’s FA Cup tie with Stockport County as league points take priority as 19th placed Wands face 20th placed Three Bridges at Flamingo Park. 

Kick off 7.45 pm.  Please note entry is free for all supporters for this game.

Cray put in an incredible performance against a Stockport County side who stand four leagues and 112 places in the pecking order and gave County an almighty fright after taking a 2-0 lead at half time and still leading going into injury time.  The League One side despite having ten men had the savvy to come back and win but for many at the match and watching on TV Cray were the story on the day and couldn’t have done any more to have got in Monday’s FA Cup draw.

Sammie McLeod opened the scoring just after the twenty minute mark for his second goal of the season and gave a fine performance over 120+ minutes. Unbelievably, shortly after Stockport were reduced to ten men Alex Hernandez curled in a trademark free kick (his fifth for the Wands) and fifth of the season to leave Cray in dreamland until County’s late comeback. There were fine performances across the team and in a game with such extensive media coverage, the Wands came out of it well and hopefully this will lead to more new supporters keen to come and watch.

Cray will be looking to pick up league points having only played ten matches and moved back into the bottom four on Saturday after Brentwood Town’s point at Three Bridges moved them up to 18th. Cray have fifteen points and after the Three Bridges game will be playing Saturday-Tuesday every week up to the week before Christmas and then through January.

Three Bridges may sense a touch of fatigue in the Wands so will need to be respected as last season’s Isthmian South-East Champions will be making their first appearance at Flamingo Park. As mentioned on Saturday Three Bridges drew 1-1 at home to Brentwood with Ade Adeyinka netting his fourth goal of the season after twelve minutes before the visitors levelled in the second half. This gave Jamie Crellin’s side ten points albeit playing five games more than the Wands.

Three Bridges had an outstanding season in 2025-26 totalling 96 points and winning a tough South-East division by eleven points to earn promotion to the Premier for the first time. It is perhaps not surprising if they have found the early part of the season a challenge but there is plenty of time to turn things around and like Cray play a pure attacking style game.

So far away from home Three Bridges have won at Stanway Rovers (3-1) and drawn at Dulwich Hamlet (2-2). Their other games ended in defeat at Eastbourne Borough (2-3), Chatham Town (1-3), St Albans City (0-4), Whitehawk (2-3) and Maldon & Tiptree (1-3). At home Three Bridges beat Carshalton Athletic (3-2) and drew with Leatherhead, Enfield Town and Brentwood Town. Three Bridges lost at home to Dartford, Aveley, Lewes and Eastbourne Borough. In the FA Cup, Three Bridges went out in the 1st QR at home to Kingstonian while in the FA Trophy Biggleswade were beaten 3-1 before losing at Dartford in the 1st Round. In the Sussex Senior Cup Three Bridges were beaten by Worthing.

Three Bridges FC were formed in 1901 and played a vast majority of time from 1951-52 in the Sussex County League until 2011-12 where they won the First Division title earning promotion to the Isthmian League. They finished seventh in the South Division in 2014-15 but were relegated to the Sussex Combination two seasons later. Three Bridges bounced back as champions in 2017-18 and finished fourth in the Isthmian League South-East in 2023-24 where they beat Sittingbourne in the semi-finals before losing to Chichester City in the Final. After finishing eighth the following season they won the league last season.

Cray had met Three Bridges in cup competitions mainly in the FA Vase, Isthmian League Cup and FA Cup before meeting in league competition for the first time in the South and South-East Divisions.  The sides have met four times with Cray winning on all four occasions. The last time at home was on 6th January 2019 when Archie Johnson’s dramatic 99th minute goal gave Cray a 1-0 win. The last away game was a 2-0 win in April 2019 once the South-East Division title was won with goals from Joe Taylor and Freddie Parker.

A note for supporters that as a gesture for Sunday’s heroics entry for the game will be free for all supporters with a printed match programme available, £3.

It may not have the pizazz and glamour as Sunday but equally important for Cray to move up the table and start clawing back the league games.

Pictures supplied by Steve Cullum, Natalie Stribbling and Steve Blunn.