Match 4 - Cray Wanderers v Soham Town Rangers

Well safe to say we were super excited about heading out to a new ground for the 2nd Qualifying round, more so given the reason the game had been moved to Sunday was because Bromley who Cray share with were hosting Notts County on Saturday (who are my Dad's team). Thanks to my sat nav we went on another wonderful journey to get to the ground taking in some delightful Kent countryside and long stretches of single track road, not ideal in a WAV.

Anyway en route we stopped at Cobham the only major services we passed the whole journey and one we were already familiar with and therefore knew there was a changing places here (though yet again not sign posted until you get all the way through to the disabled facilities at the back of the services), I really am amazed they don't scream about having these facilities as they were really clean and being well used.

Our wonderful journey in meant we arrived just after 2.15pm, there are building works around the ground (well mentioned on Twitter today on the Cray game build up post). They still had a few disabled spaces at the ground, though, these were all full when we arrived, we discovered later not one of those occupying the spaces had a disabled badge on display. Can't really blame Cray for something which is a huge blight on society in my opinion, without getting my soapbox out these spaces are particularly important when you have a WAV, the extra little bit of space they provide means JJ isn't sat completely in the middle of the road once I bring him to the bottom of the ramp. Anyway there was a massive overflow car park round the back though had it been December it wasn't tarmacked so could of been problematic to try and get the wheelchair across as I imagine the surface would become a muddy mess.

Another £10 entry fee led into a really nice ground 5,000 capacity the biggest stand behind one of the

goals was closed but the main stand was also covered and offered some protection against the prospective rain, the early arrival meant we were able to explore. We started by sampling the food outlet at the far end of the main stand where I plumbed for a Cornish pasty, we recently discovered JJ loves a Greggs Sausage roll (I mean who doesn't right?) and its safe to say the Cornish pasty became a shared event pretty quickly. It was also excellent so if the rest of the offerings were to the same standard it gets a thumbs up from us and was very reasonably priced at £3.50

Now the main signposted toilets were in a portacabin and not ideal for us, I think due to the building works. I later discovered that the bar had lovely toilets and a great disabled toilet behind a coded door, which you had to get from the bar and whilst no bench (I'm getting spoilt by all these service stations) there was more than enough room for a seat change. Which was handy given Sunday trading hours meant the large supermarkets would be closed by the time we departed for home

We took a seat in the main stand ready for the game to start and what a super game we got to see. Cray right from the off showed they were the higher ranked side creating a number of chances and eventually opening the scoring on 18mins, almost my golden goal time (which was 68 minutes, I was close right?) A great bit of goalkeeping prevented Cray going two up just before half time sadly it was the centre half so a converted penalty and sending off really affected the complexion of the game.

Half time bought us to the bar which is lovely, it also included possibly my highlight of this season's adventure so far as we were walking in we ran into the guy who ran the turnstile at Soham and who had overcharged us by mistake on our first visit. The genuine delight when he recognised us is what makes all this so enjoyable. Sadly that high was tempered by some personal bad news a close friend text just before the end of half time to let me know her father had passed away that morning for a decade in my late teens and early twenty's I spent a lot of time with the family so it hit me pretty hard.

The second half was an absolute goal fest and although my mind was clearly in other places it was a cracking game of football Cray eventually ran out 5-2 winners, although it could of been 10-0 to Cray or 5-5 if Soham had made a bit more of the chances they fashioned. The only reason Cray did not score more was down to a fantastic display by the Soham keeper, one save in particular from a header at point blank range was unbelievable. It was only at the end did I discover the Soham keeper was a Pope, yes England's Nick Pope's older brother is also a keeper and on this evidence a really, really good one. Always amazing when a keeper is your man of the match when he's just conceded 5.

So our run with Soham Town ends after 3 really enjoyable games. JJ and I really do wish them the best of luck for the rest of this season and hope that one day we return there as they have really made us feel so welcome, but for now we await the draw for the 3rd Qualifying round with great excitement.