Cray Wanderers 2 v 0 Ashford Town

Ryman Division One

By Jerry Dowlen

CRAY completed their first double of the season when they followed up a 3-0 win at Ashford 14 days ago with a 2-0 win at Hayes Lane.

Those who saw Ashford keeper Dave Wietecha make non-stop saves in the game at Homelands must have felt deja-vu when he denied Cray an early goal with a close-range reflex save after the Wands' first corner.

Cray's Steve Northwood had to be alert to push away Solomon Henry's fierce shot and Ashford nearly scored from the rebound when Mark Banks whistled a header narrowly wide.

When a long ball into the box bounced kindly for him on 15 minutes, Gary Abbott reacted quickly to lob the ball neatly over the helpless Dave Wietecha to put Cray ahead.

Cray were thankful for some wasteful finishing by Emmanuel Sackey after he sprang the offside trap but finished a strong run with a shot just wide.

There was an even bigger let-off for Cray when they were caught wide open at the back but the unmarked Henry saw his header come back off the crossbar.

Cray weathered the storm and Abbott set up Lover for a cross-shot which Wietecha held low down.

Ashford raced to the other end and forced Northwood in to a fine save as Henry stabbed a shot at goal.

A strong start for Cray in the second half saw a goalbound shot kicked off the line following a good save from Jamie Wood's low shot.

But it was not long before Henry on the left was menacing Cray again.

Ian Jenkins made a switch just after the hour with substitute David Hall sitting at right back to block the supply line.

Cray's defence had to dig in deep with Danny Bower, Terry Khan and Dean Morris all battling hard.

After conceding several free-kicks inside their own half Cray were kept under more pressure than they might have expected judging from the game a fortnight earlier but they held firm and began to threaten on the break during the last 10 minutes.

Wietecha blocked a Leigh Bremner shot in a one-on-one after 83 minutes but to the relief of the home supporters a second goal arrived four minutes later.

From a throw-in on the left Jon Main took possession and got enough power behind his attempted shot for the ball to squirt into the path of Jamie Kempster who had time and space to shoot low past Wietecha.

Cray will be pleased with a full six points from their last two games but with striker Michael Power now in hospital recovering from appendicitis and defenders David Gray and Ian Rawlings on the injury list again, the run-up to Christmas looks likely to test the squad's strength-in-depth.

Cray Wanderers: Northwood; Watkins; Khan; Morris; Bower; Taylor (Hall, 63); Lover; Kempster; Abbott (Bremner, 66); Main; Wood (Ward, 90).

Subs not used: Dimmock; Young.