Canvey Island 3 Burgess Hill Town 0

Buildbase FA Trophy Third Qualifying Round, Saturday 30th October

My latest Road To Wembley edition in the FA Trophy came from Park Lane and saw Isthmian North leaders Canvey Island net three early second half goals to see off Isthmian South East side Burgess Hill Town in front of 352 on the Island.

Canvey have been flying this season and are still unbeaten in the league after nine games, sitting top of the pile as a result, and they had seen off fellow Isthmian North side Coggeshall Town & Southern League South Central Ware to reach this stage, and would have been fairly confident of seeing off another Isthmian side Hill who were third bottom in the South East table.

But, the visitors have been in good form recently and were unbeaten in four, including the last round of this competition to reach this stage, a penalty shoot out win over Sevenoaks Town, so they were not to be taken lightly that was for sure. And with both sides backed by noisy support, this was set up to be a decent cup tie in a good atmosphere.

The hosts, who came into this one as favourites still, had the better of the opening half hour, and should have been in front inside two minutes but saw Elliott Ronto somehow send a close range header against the inside of the post, before Evans Kouassi then burst in but saw his effort well saved by Taylor Seymour.

And Matthew Price then cracked a wonderful left footed effort against the visitors bar as the hosts continued to threaten an opener, but as the half entered its latter stages the visitors did cause some alarm in the Canvey contingent, seeing two long range efforts deflected over, before a free kick from Lewis Taylor saw Bobby Mason get down well to save, and then moments after that free kick Pat Harding somehow put over at the back post with the goal gaping, it was a warning to Canvey that Hill could catch them out if they lost concentration, but it gave the visitors some confidence going into the break all square after ending the half well.

But the contest was to be settled in a devastating nine minute spell from the home side early in the second period, taking the lead five minutes after the break when a poor header clear found Harrison Chatting who lobbed the ball into the box, and Kouassi was quickest to react to loft the ball over Seymour before bundling home, and then barely a minute later Kouassi returned the favour to Chatting with the former playing in the latter to ram home a lovely left footed finish.

And then just before the hour mark came a wonderful goal, as Conor Hubble whipped a Beckham like free kick over the wall and into the far top corner, giving keeper Seymour absolutely no chance at all, you could have had two keepers in the goal and they would not have got near it, it was a wonder strike and pretty much sealed this contest with half an hour still to play.

It had certainly knocked the stuffing out of the visitors who had hoped their decent showing towards the end of the first half would have seen them kick on and maybe surprise their opponents, but The Gulls cruised through the remainder of the game to take their place in the First Round Proper of the competition and await their opponents in Monday's draw. 

Full time Canvey Island 3 Burgess Hill Town 0