We suffered away day blues as we left Hayes Lane off the back of a heavy defeat, writes James Barrett.
Team news: Richard Ismail was switched into attack, while Paris Hamilton-Downes and Peter Adeniyi returned to the starting eleven.
We had the first effort on target in the third minute but Nick Blue got down to smother Mickel Miller's 20 yard shot.
As the sun beamed down and a light breeze kept thing fresh, both sides looked to play the ball on the deck, but Leader thumped a header on an inswinging free kick over on 10 minutes.
Alex Kozakis was alive to gather up two dangerous through balls, while Prescott did enough to deny Brendan Murphy-McVey a clear run on Cray's goal as the game swung back and forth.
Miller tested Blue again on 21 minutes with a decent shot but chances were still at a premium, although Kozakis made up for a poor clearance five minutes later by tipping Danny Haynes' subsequent gather and shot around a post at full stretch.
The game slowed down after that as both sides were guilty of poor passes or giving away niggly fouls.
One nice passage of play, which started with Jahmahl King and included Ismail, Bobby Price and Adeniyi, ended with Korboa driving into their area but our boss saw his shot on the cut-back deflected away.
But we went into the break trailing as we failed to clear a late corner and, at the second attempt, Haynes rifled a low shot through a crowd to beat Kozakis just inside the far post.
HALF-TIME: 1 - 0
Before we could settle into the second-half Haynes blasted a 22 yard effort into the top corner to double Cray's lead and make our task even harder.
But we did rally and an Adeniyi run into their box was only halted by a third tackle, Hamilton-Downes almost picked out Miller with a cross and Blue just beat Korboa to a neat Sekou Kaba through ball.
Kozakis was alert to deny Haynes his hat-trick on 55 minutes but Mundele added to the home side's score by poking home a pass after he ghosted into our area unchecked.
Matt Males was introduced for Ismail and he almost reduced the arrears on the hour but his header on a corner lacked the power to beat a defending leg inside the six yard box.
But, just a minute later, Miller rose unmarked 10 yards out from goal and powerfully headed a Hamilton-Downes cross from left past Blue.
That joy was short-lived however as Scott got onto a pass and drilled a low shot across Kozakis inside the far post to re-establish Cray's three goal advantage.
The rest of the game was played at a slower tempo and the closest we came to reducing the arrears was through Korboa, but his jinking run and firm shot was well held by Blue on 77 minutes.
Photos from today's game can be viewed here.
Next up: We travel to Molesey on Tuesday 18th October before we welcome Ramsgate on Saturday 22nd October.
Carshalton Athletic: Kozakis; Price, King, McLaughlin, Hamilton-Downes (c); Miller, Kaba, Murphy-McVey (Salgado - 80), Adeniyi, Korboa (Healy - 80); Ismail (Males - 57)
Goal: Miller (61)
Assist: Hamilton-Downes
Booked: Korboa, Kaba
Cray Wanderers: Blue, Mundele, Sivapathasundaram, Leader, Lorraine, Dawson, Prescott, Roberts, Haynes (Wood-Garness - 80), Dent (Williams - 67), Scott (Osibodu - 88)
Unused subs: McKinlay, Taiwo
Goals: Haynes (45, 47), Mundele (56), Scott (63)
Booked: Mundele