DATE CONFIRMED FOR BIG LONDON SEMI AWAY TO CRAY VALLEY PM

This game has been arranged for Thursday 20th April, kicking off at 7.45 at Badgers Sports Ground.

The last hurdle to be cleared before the final combatants battling for the honour of lifting the London Senior Cup enter the arena at Champion Hill on Wednesday 3rd May has now had a date fixed. In less than a fortnight, come Thursday 20th April, Dulwich Hamlet will return to Badgers Sports Ground in Eltham, having already triumphed there over fellow residents, Greenwich Borough, in the early stages of the Alan Turvey Trophy. Admission prices for this game have been set at £8 (including programme) for adults, £5 for concessions with accompanied under free (otherwise £1).

Cray Valley Paper Mills are, at the current time, lying in fourth spot in the Southern Counties East Football League though with five games left in the League campaign, the fourteen-point gap between themselves and leaders Ashford United would seem unsurmountable to all but the most optimistic of fans.

However, the London Senior Cup has seen the club claim some famous scalps on the way to their upcoming semi-final clash with Dulwich Hamlet. After advancing from the First Round of the London Senior Cup by dint of receiving a walkover from their tie with Croydon, Cray Valley travelled to Welling United emerging with an impressive 3-1 at the National League South club. The Wings might have made several changes from their previous league outing but the side still brimmed with first team experience with the likes of Pierre Joseph-Dubois and Ali Fuseini in the ranks and Sam Hatton skippering the side. However, the Wings flapped in the face of Cray Valley’s industry, falling behind early as Tom Youngs slapped a 9th minute penalty past Paul Agu. Joseph-Dubois scrambled a leveller bang on halftime but home fans who expected their boys to move up a gear after the break, got a mighty shock as the visitors soon extinguished a bright start by their hosts. Youngs curled home a second on 72 minutes before Ben Francis seized on a weak clearance from Agu send a long-range steamer back past the red-faced ‘keeper.

Next up a youthful AFC Wimbledon, once more using the Senior Cup as sounding board for their tyro talent. However, it was a teenager taking his place between the sticks for Cray Valley that would drew the plaudits from the watching fans. 18-year-old ‘keeper Jordan Carey proved an impassable obstacle for the young Wombles pulling off a string of top-notch saves, even keeping out a first half penalty from the Reece Williams-Bowers. His heroics allowed Ben Francis to send a sizzling volley past Carey’s opposite number 8 minutes from the interval. With just two minutes left the Dons were thrown a lifeline as substitute Egli Kaga was tripped in the box. The young Albanian exacted his own revenge steering the spot kick into the bottom corner just bottom the reach of Carey’s dive. It looked as it would take kicks from the penalty mark to separate the sides by the contest had one last twist as 30 seconds into stoppage time Chandler Kasai’s single-minded charge into the box was ended in inglorious fashion with a foul. The cool head belonged to club stalwart Ryan Fowler stroking his spot kick into the bottom corner and propelling his side into the semi-finals of the London Senior Cup for the third time in four years. Having fallen at that penultimate hurdle on each of those occasions history may not be on their side but that is the past, Thursday week is the future.