Canvey Island 0 Tonbridge Angels 1

Buildbase FA Trophy Second Round Proper, Saturday November 27th

I was back over at Park Lane, Canvey, for my latest edition in my Buildbase FA Trophy Road To Wembley to see if Canvey Island could continue their remarkable unbeaten run and stun Tonbridge Angels in their Second Road tie, however a second half goal from Joe Turner saw Angels progress into the next round, thus ending the Gulls run in the competition.

The hosts had taken out fellow Isthmian North Coggeshall Town, Southern League Ware and Burgess Hill Town, and then Northern Premier Midland side Yaxley to reach this stage, and it was included in a run of games that sees The Gulls on a fourteen-match unbeaten run in all competitions, winning the last eight in a row, as they sat top of the Isthmian North division six points clear.

Their only defeat all season came in the FA Cup, but in twenty games in all competitions so far, they had netted an astonishing fifty-eight goals, which is on average almost three goals a game, so they are certainly not boring to watch. The only game they had failed to score in came at Bedford in the FA Cup when they drew 0-0 before losing the replay, that was early September.

And they welcomed a Tonbridge Angels side to Park Lane not in the best of form in a season which has seen them struggle somewhat in the Vanarama National South division, their last win came a month or so ago at Billericay Town, so maybe Essex was a lucky county for them perhaps, so they could at least look towards this as a good omen.

Angels do play two levels above Canvey as well so despite the hosts brilliant form this season, this was still going to be a tough task for the Gulls, but backed by a noisy home support once again, they were certainly going to give a good go at continuing their run in the Trophy, they were up against a side who had netted only once in five games since that win at New Lodge, that came in a draw against struggling Chelmsford City last time out, which meant the Kent side sat fourth from bottom in their division.

Both teams were greeted with cold damp freezing conditions at Park Lane, it was most certainly a day to wrap up warm, and the home side with the wind on their backs saw Harrison Chatting scoop over a decent chance early on, and they also saw Evans Kouassi fire over a powerful effort and then send another one straight at keeper Jonathan Henly.

Angels looked most likely to break the deadlock from set plays, and saw a header cleared off the line before the rebound was volleyed wide, and then another corner saw a header planted wide of the far post, but conditions were certainly playing their part in this contest as both teams had to work harder than normal to control the ball, but with neither side able to find a breakthrough in meant the first half ended goalless.

Angels certainly came out the better side in the early exchanges in the second half as Canvey were defending not only the visitors attacks but also a strengthening wind into the faces as well as horizontal rain too, it was horrendous conditions if truth be told and The Gulls found themselves pinned back as a result, and the visitors managed to find a breakthrough twelve minutes into the second period when a ball laid back to Turner saw him fire an effort at goal which deflected on route, beating Bobby Mason who was wrongfooted as result.

How would Canvey respond? Well, they rolled their sleeves up and responded very well indeed, and finally started to find some sort of attacking threat in the second period, something they had failed to do in the opening exchanges of the half, and the ever-dangerous Kouassi wiggled his way into the box on one occasion but saw his cross towards the far post booted off the line and clear.

Angels themselves did test Mason on a couple of occasions in the second period, striking two decent long range efforts and using the wind to get more speed on the shots, but each time Mason got down well to beat away the efforts, also a couple of in swinging corners caused alarm in the hosts penalty area too as the visitors looked for a second to seal this one, they did have the ball in the net when Aaron Smith Joseph converted a flick on at the back post, but the assistants flag had gone up to rule that one out.

Angels could not find that killer second though and they almost paid the price for it, as keeper Henly, who had pretty much any saves to make in the second period, produced a couple of moments to keep his side ahead, somehow sticking up an arm to block what looked a certain goal for Conor Hubble after he found himself with just the keeper to beat from point blank range, and then soon after palming away another effort headed for the far corner after a ball was swung into the mixer.

The Hubble save was astonishing, we were all looking at each other wondering how he didn’t score, but credit to keeper Henly who made himself big and managed to pull off a remarkable stop and thwart The Gulls a goal that would have surely taken the tie to penalties.

It meant that the National League South visitors progressed through after holding on to their clean sheet at the end, thus becoming only the second side to deny Canvey a goal this season, and it also ended am unbeaten run of fourteen for the hosts too, so congratulations to the visitors who were pushed all the way by a side two divisions below them.

Canvey will now be able to focus on their main aim this season, promotion to the Isthmian Premier, this has been a good run in the Trophy but they came up against a Tonbridge side who just had that little bit extra on the day, and well played both sides in what were awful conditions, I now await to see who Tonbridge Angels draw in Round Three…

Full time Canvey Island 0 Tonbridge Angels 1