Canvey Island 6 Yaxley 0

Buildbase FA Trophy 1st Round Proper, Saturday November 13th

Another Saturday and another FA Competition, and it was the turn of the FA Trophy First Round in my latest Road to Wembley edition of that, and it saw Canvey Island continue their impressive form, hitting Yaxley for six to cruise into the second round of the competition.

On paper there only looked like one winner in this tie, Canvey are flying right now and are four points clear at the top of the Isthmian North Division, unbeaten in eleven and have netted FORTY goals in those eleven games since they last tasted defeat, an FA Cup replay at home to Bedford in early September, which is still there only defeat in any competition this campaign.

In contrast Yaxley have not been having a great season, they are 16^th in the Northern Premier League Midlands Division and have lost eight of their last ten in the league, with their only win coming against bottom side Histon in that time and have conceded on average three goals a game in those ten games, so no doubt Canvey’s goal crazy forward line would fancy a few in this one.

Yaxley though have managed to win a couple of Trophy games to get to this point, they defeated Biggleswade who are having a tough season in the Southern League One Central, and then in the last round they defeated Lowestoft Town of the Southern League Premier Central division, which is a step above Yaxley, albeit Lowestoft are third bottom in that division.

Despite that though those were still two very good wins, especially the one at England’s most easterly point in Suffolk, so Canvey would need to be aware and not underestimate their opponents if they were to avoid a shock and exit the competition, but this was unlikely, and you would have expected The Gulls to get the job done in this one, they were arguably a much better side than the ones Yaxley had dealt with in the two previous rounds.

This was Canvey’s third home tie of four in this season’s competition, and apart from their penalty shootout win at Ware, they had breezed through their other two ties here at Park Lane, netting seven goals in the process after comfortable wins over Coggeshall Town and Burgess Hill Town, would the same happen to Yaxley, we were about to find out.

Well, the game was as good as done before the midway point of the first period as Canvey continued their impressive goal scoring form as Yaxley just could not deal with their attacking prowess, and it began after just seven minutes when Evans Kouassi sent Harrison Chatting in the clear, and after being brought down by visiting keeper Aaron Butcher, Matthew Price stepped up to send him the wrong way from the spot.

Four minutes later The Gulls doubled their lead when after wonderful football on the edge of the box, Conor Hubble ran onto a pass, burst into the box before firing a brilliant left footed effort beyond Butcher, and then just before the midway point of the half Chatting sent in a decent cross for Price to nod home unmarked, it was too easy for the hosts and they were in total control.

Canvey were not done there either in the first period, netting a fourth after thirty four minutes as a clinical counter saw Kouassi and Price two on one with a lone defender, Kouassi played the ball across to Price, and he eventually returned a ball into the path of Kouassi who ran on to send a emphatic finish across goal into the far corner, it had been another superb showing from The Gulls and they had blown Yaxley away and the job was as good as done.

It really was a matter of how many Canvey would score, Bobby Mason did at least have a decent save to make in the second half, keeping out a low drive, but he was pretty much a spectator for the majority as Canvey continued to look for more goals, although they had to wait until the 73rd minute when they did find a fifth as Kouassi produced great skill on the left before squaring for Chatting who fired home a first time left footed effort.

Seven minutes later Canvey completed the scoring by netting six goals for the second game running, as who else other than Kouassi was involved again, as his pass found substitute Callum Fitzer who turned and fired home a lovely left footed effort into the far corner, another fabulous day for The Gulls, utterly dominant and nobody will want to draw them in the next round that is for sure. The bumper crowd of 452 certainly enjoyed it as did I...

Full time Canvey Island 6 Yaxley 0