A bonus double midweek action for me, I do love this time of the season! After witnessing Littlehampton Town’s first ever home Isthmian League fixture, it was a step up on Wednesday night as I travelled to Hayes Lane to watch Cray Wanderers take on Bognor Regis Town, I should really have hitched a lift on their coach!
Having watched Neil Smith’s side take shape over the summer with some impressive signings I’m not expecting a team struggling at the bottom of the league this time around while I’m expecting some decent things from Robbie Blake at Bognor too.
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A much cooler evening once again this time in Kent, the early rain left in Sussex and dry conditions for what hopefully would be an entertaining match between two clubs who underachieved last year.
The opening exchanges were fairly even, Cray giving Bognor something to think about with the pace of Michael Ademiluyi down the right hand side while the visitors looked to break with pace whenever they could.
And from one of those breaks they could have taken the lead on 19 minutes but Tom Chalaye couldn’t get his head over the ball after a pinpoint cross from Nick Dembele. That miss to prove costly as nine minutes later Wands were in front.
A corner from Anthony Cook onto the head of centre half Jalen Jones saw the big man’s header blocked, the loose ball slammed home by Jones’ defensive partner Harold Joseph for the game’s opening goal.
Neither side fashioned too many more chances before half time as Cray began to dominate the midfield, Bognor’s best outlet coming from full back Joe Rabbetts but unable to pick out a white shirt in the box.
Just two minutes into the second half, Blake’s game plan appeared to be out of the window as Nyme Clunis strode forward unchallenged with the ball and let fly from fully 25 yards out giving Rocks keeper Toby Steward no chance at all.
Wands could have put the game beyond their visitors minutes later but the effort dipped just over the bar much to the relief of the travelling fans, 3-0 would have looked to have a very long way back for Bognor.
The game however turned on a sixpence over the next 20 minutes as Blake shuffled his pack and made his three permitted substitutions which started to make a difference to his side going forward.
Twice there were calls for a penalty to be given which the referee waved away, the third time however he pointed to the spot, which honestly looked like he’d gotten one of the two earlier calls wrong, this was a little soft.
That made no difference to Nathan Odonkonyero as the substitute reduced the deficit and made it game on! That rattled Cray and just four minutes later the scores were level.
Clunis looked like he had the goal of the night, but Odonkonyero had better ideas. Having kept the ball in play on the left hand touchline he knocked it past Cook, cut inside and curled a delicious shot into the top right hand corner giving Shaun Rowley no chance at keeping it out.
A brief flurry of attacking moments came from Bognor as they went in search of the winner, Cray using the last five minutes themselves to try to find a winner with a couple of decent chances that didn’t find the target, both sides having to settle for a point in a very keenly contested game.
Neil Smith is easily going to see this as two points dropped given their commanding position two minutes into the second half, however some nice passages of play and easy to see they will be a threat at set pieces with Jones and Joseph plus Tom Derry, they look more organised too and will be happy to get off the mark with a point.
Robbie Blake earnt his money with those changes and nice to have options from the bench that can change a game. What I expect he will be disappointed with is giving the home side a two goal head start, drawing too many games last season was their achilles heel and he’ll be keen to see they don’t lapse back into old ways as the season progresses.
I had a very unplanned first 45 minutes with former Barnet boss and current Portsmouth coach Simon Bassey, great to have his company, viewpoints on his former club and how he’s fairing now, fascinating to listen to.
And of course couldn’t not spend the second half with Bromley fans Eddie Mackintosh and Rob Shirley, two great guys I’ve gotten to know over the past 18 months or so and a regular meet up is great to chat over so much football.
