Friday night football comes to Flamingo Park as Cray Wanderers welcome Whitehawk in the Isthmian Premier, with boss Tim O’Shea wanting an early Christmas present.

He will be hoping his side can convert one of their many draws this season into a home win to give the Wands just the boost they need going into the Festive programme. 

Last weekend’s win at Potters Bar Town saw the Wands lift themselves back in the Play Off places, but O’Shea is only too well aware that whilst his side have only lost three League games all season (only bettered by two other sides), the eleven that they have drawn out of twenty played is considerably more than any other side in the division.

“As nice as it is to be unbeaten, I did say to the boys on Saturday if there was psychology involved where they don’t go into games not wanting to lose, when you don’t come out with a win that you may think you deserve, it is nice to get a point,” he told us. 

“It’s been good to have a full week with the boys and no game in between,” O’Shea went on.

“We have been like it now for a few weeks; I hear other managers this time of year bemoaning Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday, but for us recently we have been just Saturday, Saturday!”

“And as much as we have a lot of young players in our team, we also have some more “senior” ones as well which gives them more recovery time!” 

“The win at Potters Bar was good for us in regard to the result,” the manager told us.

“On balance I think it was probably a fair result, although they hit the bar in the first half, but we had a few chances and I think we deserved to go in one to the good, and second half while they threw everything at us, we handled it and then we got the second.” 

“It’s going to be something different this weekend – Friday night under the lights,” the Cray boss admitted.

“I think the request came from Whitehawk initially requested the switch, so it will be different. Hopefully we can get a good crowd in – we know it’s going to be another tough game.”

“They will be looking to get back on track after losing at home to Welling last week; fair play to Welling as Whitehawk is a really tough place to go, especially with that hill and slope they have on their pitch, so we know that they will be looking to bounce back Friday night – I’m expecting a good game.” 

“The squad is looking good – we’ve no injuries from Potters Bar, and hopefully everyone bar Tom Bonner who is away will be fit and able!”