Casuals Crash To Defeat At Cray

On a mild October afternoon in Bromley, Corinthian-Casuals’ two late strikes were not enough to salvage any points versus the clinical Cray Wanderers; Bracken’s injury-stricken side sit in 6th place in the unpredictable Bostik League South.

The chocolate & pink of Casuals and the yellow of Cray started proceedings on the 3pm mark, with the hosts clearly the better side after fifteen minutes. Sustained pressure and decent passages of play resulted in the opening goal. No.10 Aaron Rhule was free at the back post when a cross floated straight onto his head and into the back of the net. It was 1-0 to Cray after the first 15, how would Bracken handle conceding first? The answer was to continue with his original strategies, and hope that Wanderers would falter. The home side did not falter much, but did allow Casuals to get back in the game- the best chance was via a Josh Uzun corner, in which Mu Maan nearly bundled in if it wasn’t for the hands of Cray keeper Nick Blue. Then, in the 40th minute, Karl Dent stood over a free kick from 25 yards out for Cray, and curled an accurate effort into the bottom left corner of the net, leaving Danny Bracken stranded, unable to palm away the shot. This strike from the no.8 had condemned Casuals to a two goal deficit just before the break.

As the referee started the second half, both set of supporters switched sides and filled up on the grub in the clubhouse. Would Corinth finally have something to cheer about? No. A low cross in the 60th minute was converted by Rhule, who was at the back post again to score for Cray. At two goals down, it seemed Casuals still had an opportunity to claw themselves back into the game, but as the third goal was netted, that opportunity slipped from their grasp even more. Despite the disappointing 3-0 score-line, the Corinthian contingent behind the goal were still singing loud, and completely drowning out any noise from the Wanderers, and were halfway through a song when no.9 Michael Power scored two minutes after the third. It was now 4-0 to Cray.

Over? Far from it, said Malachi Robinson. It was the 64th minute when the left-back latched onto a terrific cross from the right flank; a booming tap-in flew past the Cray no.1 as Casuals fans were eventually able to celebrate. One down, three to go! It took a tad longer for the second to arrive, but when it did… Jordan Clarke had a relatively quiet game before the 72nd minute, and wasn’t able to advance past the yellow-shirted full-backs, until now. The no.11 picked the ball up on the left flank and swerved past three or four players in an epic run as he edged closer to the goal, and capped off this individual brilliance with a fake-shot before teeing up Reyon Dillon in the six-yard box, who sliced the ball in. The loudest cheer of the afternoon was when Dillon sprinted to the halfway line in an attempt to save time; it was 4-2 with twenty minutes left.

The final stages of the match included an agonising Josh Uzun free-kick that plummeted into the gloves of the Cray no.1, who dived to palm the ball away, amongst other Casuals half-chances. But in the end, James Bracken’s eleven (despite the late substitutions of Uzun and Jamie Byatt) could not comeback from Cray’s mountainous lead as the fixture ended 4-2 to the hosts.

Photo credit: Stuart Tree

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