Brentwood Town were unable to make it three league wins on the bounce as Cray Wanderers claimed all three points with a 4-1 victory at The Arena on Saturday afternoon.
Suley Zuhdu’s first goal in Brentwood colours briefly brought the Blues level, but a clinical display from the visitors saw them take control of the contest.
Little separated the two sides during the opening stages. The visitors did come close through debutant Jonh Ufuah as he retrieved a loose ball in the area, but his shot from close range fell wide of the post.
However, the visitors started to get on top, as goalscorer Ade Yusuff put The Wands ahead inside 20 minutes when he glanced a header beyond Jack Giddens and into the far corner.
Just five minutes had passed until The Blues found an almost instant equaliser, however. Suley Zuhdu was picked out in the area by the inviting delivery Alfie Cerulli and slotted home his effort to open his personal account in Sky Blue colours.
This brought the Blues into life. Cerulli then earned a free-kick outside of the area, with his effort deflected off The Wands’ wall and parried away by Jasper Briggs.
From the resulting corner, the Wands brokek on the counterattack, nearly restoring their advantage through Ufuah as he broke down the right flank and dinked his effort over Giddens, but only as far as the top of the roof netting.
A flurry of chances were created by The Blues as Charlie Edwards had his floated effort denied and a drilled effort by Cerulli was palmed away by Briggs.
Despite this, it was The Wands who doubled their advantage just before the break with Yusuff tapping his effort from close range to the near post.
Early into the second half The Blues looked to respond with Nat Mardell playing a corner short to Cerulli and his effort forcing the save of Briggs to deny.
However, the visitors managed to add a third just over the hour mark as Ola Ogunwamide capitalised from a loose Blues defensive clearance and rolled his effort into the net.
Ufuah then secured the fourth minutes later to round off the afternoon scoring when he drilled his low range effort into the far corner.
Brentwood will be looking to bounce back this Tuesday as they welcome newly-promoted Leatherhead to The Arena.
BRENTWOOD TOWN: Giddens (GK), Cripps (C) (Sach 72′), Henshaw, Gipson, Reid (Saunders 62′), Edwards (Robinson 53′), Read, Freeman, Mardell (Linton 78′), Cerulli, Zuhdu (Sears 62′)
Subs not used: N/A
CRAY WANDERERS: Briggs, Lema, Morgan, Strachan, Adaja (Spencer-Adams 87′), Raymond (Payne 80′), Hernandez (Kader 72′), Yusuff (Sanogo 72′), Ogunwamide (Tinubu 71′), Mcleod, Ufuah
Subs not used: N/A
Report by Michaela Georgopolous
