Cray Wanderers have announce the appointment of Tim O’Shea as First Team Manager for the 2025-26 season.
This follows a run seven matches as interim first team manager at the end of the current 2024-25 Isthmian Premier League season.
Tim or ‘Tosh’ as often known came to Cray Wanderers as Assistant Manager to long- time friend Neil Smith who was appointed also initially as Interim Manager in March 2022.
After helping the club avoid relegation in 2021-22 the following season was the greatest in the club’s history in terms of league position and finished 5th and a place in the Isthmian Premier Playoffs for the first time only ending in a penalty shoot- out defeat at Hornchurch.
After recovering from a sticky start to the 2023-24 season to finish fairly comfortably clear of relegation, Tim alongside Neil in a momentous first season at Flamingo Park has again helped to get the club away from any relegation problems with a strong 2025 on field performance and just one home defeat in the last sixteen league games. The club also reached the 4th Qualifying Round of the FA Cup this season, only the third time in the club’s history.
In March 2025, Smith departed the club to become the first manager in Cray Wanderers history to move up into the Football League as Assistant to Scott Lindsay at Crawley Town.
Tim took over at short notice for the rest of the season and a tough end schedule but with the club currently in 10th place and on 60 points, three wins out of the first four games certainly didn’t do his chances of a permanent appointment any harm at all.
Cray Wanderers Chairman Gary Hillman said “Tim has played a very big part in first team affairs over the last three years and I have been very impressed with the team performances since Neil Smith’s departure. He has previous managerial experience in the National League so it was an easy decision for myself and Vice-Chairman Michael Paye to make”.
Tim represented Republic of Ireland at Youth level and came through the Tottenham Hotspur youth system and went on to make 3 appearances for the first team between 1983-88 which included a loan spell at Newport County and went on to Leyton Orient for the 1988-89 season.
He went on to star at Gillingham as a defender making 112 appearances between 1989 and 1992. After later playing in Hong Kong he went into non-league football with Farnborough Town and Welling United and from here went into management at Grays, Croydon and Lewes where Neil Smith was a coach.
After a spell out of the game he came to Cray Wanderers with Neil in March 2022 now as his Assistant and now has a clean slate to begin the 2025-26 season with London’s Oldest Football Club. His managerial team working alongside Tim will be confirmed in due course but may not need too much tinkering.