Cray Wanderers complete the 2025-26 season home fixtures on Saturday as the Wands welcome Welling United for the first time at Flamingo Park and also the first home league meeting since 1977.
Cray in seventh place face a Welling United side who after back to back home wins can seal safety by avoiding defeat or failures of Cray Valley, Hashtag United and Carshalton Athletic the teams immediately below them.
This match will be dedicated to Prostate Cancer UK and help with awareness and contributions to the charity and this extremely prevalent disease in men.
The match sees Cray Wanderers in seventh in the Isthmian Premier League table with sixty seven points and although the playoffs are out of reach, Tim O’Shea’s side are set for the second highest league position in the club’s history. Despite the 3-0 win Lewes last Saturday wins for Brentwood Town and Chatham Town above them meant barring a freakish set of results to befall Chatham Town coupled with back to back Wands wins means despite a great effort from the team will just fall short of a playoff place. Cray have been able to better last season’s tenth place which was one of the season’s main objectives. Cray could finish with two wins sixth if Dartford who are the side most likely to challenge Brentwood and Chatham lose both their final games but to finish seventh or eighth will prove steady progression.
Last Saturday, Cray got off to a flying start as Alex Hernandez converted an early penalty and in the second half Daniel Ajakaiye netted his first goal for the club. Hernandez scored a second nineteen minutes from time to take him to twenty goals for the season. Alex is one goal behind Folkestone Invicta’s Jake Hutchinson at the top of the League Golden Boot race and level with Brentwood Town’s Daniel Ogunleye. The top five is completed by St Albans City’s Leo Sery with seventeen goals and Dartford’s Olly Box with sixteen. The Wands Max Fiddes has fifteen goals for the season.
Cray will hope to finish the season on a high and have lost only three in sixteen games in 2026 and have won five out of the last six games. Cray finish the season at Burgess Hill Town who are eighth, three points behind the Wands with Cray having a better goal difference.
Welling United have timed their best spell of the season at the right time and Dean Gunner’s first half goal was enough to secure three points on Tuesday night vs relegated Potters Bar Town at Park View Road. That win coupled with last Saturday’s 2-0 win at home to Dulwich Hamlet means Welling stand seventeenth in the table with forty four points. The Wings have lost just one of the last seven games including four wins in a row at home. Should their fate still be undecided on the final day of the season Welling host playoff bound Billericay Town.
As it stands with Canvey Island and Potters Bar Town already relegated Cray Valley are 20th with thirty eight points, Hashtag United in nineteenth have thirty nine points and Carshalton Athletic in eighteenth with forty points. All three have tough games on Saturday with Cray Valley at home to champions Folkestone Invicta, Hashtag travel to Ramsgate and Carshalton are away at second placed Aveley,
League meetings between the two sides have been extremely rare with the only previous time Cray Wanderers and Welling United met in league competition was in the London Spartan League in the 1977-78 season. The Wands were 2-0 winners on 5th November 1977 at Oxford Road, Sidcup with goals from John Canavan and Gary Cooper. Welling were 3-2 winners in the reverse fixture on 14th January 1978 as Cray went on to retain their league title but the teams moved in different circles after that with Cray moving to the Kent League the following season and Welling to the Athenian and later Southern League.
When the teams met at Welling United on 15th November, Cray were 2-0 winners with first half goals from Harry Waldock and Alex Hernandez. At that time Welling who were relegated from the National South to the Isthmian League for the first time last season were struggling with Ryan Maxwell took over as manager in November have steadily kept going and now have a chance to preserve their place in the league for next season.
Away from home Welling have won at Chichester City (2-1), Ramsgate (2-1), Whitehawk (2-1), Canvey Island (3-1), Cray Valley (4-1) and Potters Bar Town (3-2). They drew at Wingate & Finchley (1-1) and lost their other games at Cheshunt (2-4), Dulwich Hamlet (1-3), Carshalton Athletic (1-2), Hashtag United (1-2), St Albans City (1-2), Dartford (1-3), Billericay Town (1-6), Lewes (0-1), Aveley (1-2), Folkestone Invicta (0-2), Chatham Town (1-3), Burgess Hill Town (1-2) and Brentwood Town (0-2). Welling’s top scorer is John Ufuah with six goals.
This should be a great way to bring the curtain down on a second season at Flamingo Park for Cray Wanderers with a local derby and pitting two sides in good form.
Admission £15 adults, £10 concessions, £5 U18s – available on the gate or online at www.cray-wanderers.com/tickets/. Printed match programme £3 (available on the turnstile), merchandise, Golden Goal Tickets £1, Cray Wanderers 100 Club Draw for April, hot and cold food/drinks, bars. Large outdoor TV screen.