The first origins of Cray Wanderers are linked to the construction of the London, Chatham and Dover Railway line during 1858 to 1860. During their leisure time, migrant workers kicked a ball around, and that is how the club originated in the St Mary Cray village. The pitch at Star Lane is now a cemetery, and is located beneath the nine-arch railway viaduct that spans the Cray Valley. The industrial belt of the River Cray, especially the paper mills, provided much of the club's support up till the 1950s. 1936 saw the loss of the Fordcroft ground in Cray Avenue, their home since 1898 and Cray were forced to drop from the Kent League into a lower level of football. 1951/52 heralded a new era, and an upturn in the club's fortunes and they joined the London League and then spent time in the Aetolian League, the Metropolitan League and the London Spartan League before returning to the Kent League in 1978/79 where they were champions in 1980/81.

They had to wait until 2002/03 to gain their next championship and a season later they retained their title and gained promotion to Isthmian Division One and on league re-organisation moved to the Isthmian South for 2006/07. In 2008/09 they finished second in the Isthmian South and beat Metropolitan Police in the final of the play-offs to move up to the Isthmian Premier where they lasted five campaigns. Relegation for 2014/15 saw them placed in the Isthmian North until 2016/17 when they transferred to the Isthmian South after finishing 4th in the North and losing in the play-off semi-finals. They ground share at Hayes Lane, Bromley, but still hope that the green light will be given for a new multi-purpose football stadium and community hub at Flamingo Park in Sidcup.

Encounters between the two sides go back to 1959/60 and we met over five seasons in the Aetolian League with Bay winning 3, drawing 2 and losing 5. 17 goals were scored and 21 conceded. Early matches with Cray were often feisty games with sendings-off and crowd trouble. Herne Bay transferred to the Kent League in 1974/75 with Cray joining them in 1978/79. Cray also had the best of these clashes with Bay wining only 17 of the 52 games, drawing 14 and losing 21, scoring 78 times and conceding 88.

Last campaign saw three games postponed and one abandoned. Firstly, the scheduled home tie in October 2016 was lost because Cray had cup commitments, the rearranged match in December 2016 was abandoned after 16 minutes because of fog and when it was eventually played in February 2017 Wanderers won 1-0. Three days before that game Bay were due to travel to Hayes Lane but that was postponed because of the unsafe condition of the pitch, and then in March 2017 a waterlogged pitch caused another match to be lost. At the end of that month the game was eventually played with Cray winning 2-1, Bay’s goal was scored by Mark Lovell.

Cray were knocked out of this season’s FA Cup by Southern Counties East Football League Sevenoaks Town 3-2 in the Preliminary Round and on Wednesday beat Dartford 4-2 in the Second Round of the Kent Senior Cup after a victory over Thamesmead Town 3-0 in the First Round.

Last Saturday they lost their first league game from seven, 2-1 away at Lewes, following two wins (Molesey H 4-0, Shoreham A 3-0) and four draws (Thamesmead H 2-2, Phoenix A 0-0, Chipstead H 0-0, Hastings H 1-1). Herne Bay have played one game less than Cray and are four places and two points ahead.

Wanderers will be without Bradley Stevenson and Mitchell Nelson who are both suspended following their sendings-off against Lewes. Stevenson is their leading league goalscorer with three. They are 18th in the league attendance table with an mean of 123, nearly 100 short of Bay’s average.