Boosted by their 3-0 win at Concord Rangers in midweek, Cray Wanderers are back on the Isuzu FA Trophy trail this weekend and travel to Needham Market of the Southern Premier Central League with boss Neil Smith keen to progress.

Their hosts are second in the table so Cray boss Neil Smith will travel with a call to his players to find the consistency that has been lacking from the Wands in their Isthmian Premier campaign thus far. 

Speaking to KSN after the win at Concord, Smith admitted, “We need that result after not turning up for whatever reason against Kingstonian last weekend.”

“Everything we did wrong on Saturday we put right at Canvey with a great result and more importantly a good performance and thoroughly deserved.”

“Canvey is never an easy place to go, especially on a Tuesday night, but I have to say that the pitch was immaculate and full credit to them for that – we got the ball down and played which is exactly what we did not do on Saturday.”

“The difference was chalk and cheese and must put the consistency together now as winning a couple of games on the spin will lift us out of the danger zone and give us that bit of breathing space and probably take us where we want to be.” 

“It has been stop and start in the League and I have not been able to put out the same team either.”

“Last year we had no injuries and got away with it, whilst this year I think it’s caught up with us – I had two sixteen year olds and a seventeen year old on the bench on Tuesday from our Academy which is great, but in terms of the players we’re missing – Frankie Raymond, Will Wood – they are main players in the team that aren’t available and that makes the result Tuesday even better.” 

“We have another tough Trophy game next – Needham are doing very well and scoring lots of goals.”

“They won Tuesday as well so we are in for another tough game – it is a bit of a trip too to get the players there, but we will travel with confidence after Tuesday, and I am hoping that we can get some players back to make us a stronger squad.”

“We have a small squad and only had four subs on Tuesday, but sometimes you learn more about your players when their backs are against the wall.”

“They were disappointed with themselves on Saturday and showed that by putting in the performance on Tuesday – we need to find that word consistency and do it on Saturday and then midweek again to see if we can put a little run together and put some space between us and the bottom, get in mid-table as soon as possible and start actually delivering what I know we can.” 

Picture supplied by Jon Hilliger.