After 46 Bostik League Division One South matches and nine months of football it all comes down to the promotion play off semi final for Cray Wanderers on Tuesday night as they take on Walton Casuals at Hayes Lane, with the winner taking their place in the final on Saturday against either Greenwich Borough or Corinthian Casuals.
The Wands go into the game having beaten Guernsey 4-0 on Saturday securing a third place finish that guaranteed home advantage the play offs.
Casuals travel over from Surrey on a good run of form under manager Anthony Gale, finishing sixth in the table with 86 points and qualifying for the play offs over Hythe Town thanks to a superior goal difference.
They won 4-1 at Ashford Utd at the weekend, with two goals from Jack Kelly, their third consecutive win, which included a win over Cray a fortnight ago.
When the sides at the Elmbridge Sports Centre, which also has a 3G pitch, Walton ran out 5-2 winners in a game that saw six of the seven goals scored in the opening fifteen minutes.
The reverse fixture at Hayes Lane back in January ended 2-2, with the visitors equalising in the final minute through Yousef Bamba’s second goal of an entertaining match.
The Wands top scorer Michael Power notched his 100th goal for the first team on Saturday and is looking to add more to his account and move further up the all time scorers list of the 158 year old club.
Power became the focal point of The Wands attack after the loss of Luke Medley to injury early in the campaign and was only joined in the attacking options by Charlie MacDonald in January, with youngsters Freddie Parker and Ralique Lawrence having stepped up to help prior to that.
Tony Russell’s side notched an impressive 112 goals and 89 points over the league season and also had a long run in the FA Trophy and it was only a spell of suspensions and injuries in January/February that saw them slip out of the automatic promotion spots behind Carshalton and Lewes.
With both teams having had good seasons and hitting form during the run in, this will be a close fought contest that may go to the wire, in a tie that must be decided on the night.