A Carrington brace helps the side to victory.
After Tuesday night's game against Broadbridge Heath, manager Sean Muggeridge made a comment that Sam Carrington must wonder what he has to do to be on a winning side, after scoring a hat trick and ending up on the losing side.
If Carrington was thinking that, then so were we, the supporters, however, despite some weary legs, injured players and unavailability of others, Carrington and the rest of his teammates put in a sterling performance to earn the points in the end from a seven goal thriller.
The game throughout was played at a frenetic pace with players on both sides having very little time on the ball, especially defenders and therefore, it did lead to the midfield area being ignored for long periods of the match and the ball spending a lot of the time in the air.
However, both teams did their best right from the kick off and inside the very first minute, debutant goalkeeper for the Crows, Stroomberg-Clarke, had to make a smart save from the Cray Valley centre forward, Harvey.
With the ball pinging from one end to the other, it was the Crows who struck first, Treleaven firing in from the edge of the area, giving Sutton in the Cray goal no chance at all.
Even at 1-0 up those who were watching felt that this would not be the only goal of the game as both defences were put under constant pressure throughout the 90 minutes and it really looked like it would be decided by who had the better strike force and whether they'd take the chances that came their way.
Cray's recent signing, Byron Walker, was a threat all afternoon for them, his pace and movement being a constant worry to our defenders, Everest and Hollick especially. Therefore, it came as no surprise that it was he who made it 1-1 after 19 minutes, breaking through our defensive ranks and slotting calmly passed the debutant goalkeeper.
As on Tuesday night, once we concede one, we concede another, Walker again taking advantage of a defensive mix up after 22 minutes to lob the ball over Stroomberg-Clarke and make it 2-1 to Cray.
Treleaven and Carrington were giving the Cray defence a hard time with their physicality and combination play and on 26 minutes Carrington was seemingly brought down by a defender in the area when clear, however, referee Idris decide no foul had taken place and play carried on, much to the surprise of most people.
Chances came and went for both sides as the half wore on and the Crows got back on level terms in the 37th minute, Cray gave away a needless free kick which was taken by Ridley, his deep cross found Hollick unmarked at the back post and his header back across goal found Carrington who calmly nodded the ball in the net to make it 2-2.
Half time was reached with honours even and most of the crowd were happy they had seen some goals, although I would imagine that the respective management teams may well have a different view on the first 45 minutes.
The second half was played out much as the first was, ball in the air a lot, no time on the ball and some scrappy periods, although it would be fair to say that for a time Cray had the greater possession and control as the Crow players seemed to become tired and jaded after their midweek fixture.
Cray took the lead in the 74th minute when Harvey headed in from a corner which had come about during one of these more dominant periods they were having during the 90 minutes.
However, it only took the Crows seven minutes to get parity once more, Carrington racing clear of the defenders, drawing Sutton from his goal and as he went down, Carrington lifted the ball over him and into the open goal in the 81st minute.
Most people I think would have settled for 3-3 and a point for each team, probably on the balance of play most would have agreed was a fair result, however, the Crows don't give in that easy and with Treleaven and Carrington giving their all up front, you always felt they had another chance in them.
In the 87th minute this proved to be the case, the Crows won a throw in on the edge of the Cray area which gave Treleaven the chance to hurl the ball into the area, Carrington battled well to win the header at the near post and his flick on found Ridley unmarked at the far post and he duly scored the winning goal.
A game of mixed emotions, plenty of highs, some lows for both sides during the 90 minutes and taking everything into consideration, we probably were due a bit of football luck for a change having had some cruel events happen to us of late.
Sam Carrington, quite rightly in my opinion, was awarded the Crows Man of the Match, although Scott Treleaven pushed his strike partner hard for his title.
All in all, it's great to get the three points and we can now look forward to Greenwich Borough visiting us next Saturday, 17th October 2015.