Isthmian League Premier Division, Monday August 26th
My bank holiday Monday fare came from The Len Salmon Stadium as Bowers & Pitsea hosted Canvey Island in what was already likely to be a big game in terms of the league table positions as well as local bragging right's at stake too.
This is because after four games of the new season, these sides occupied the bottom two positions in the league, Bowers are second bottom having picked up only one point so far, whereas Canvey have lost all their league encounters so are yet to register a league point, so a win for either side here would no doubt kick start their season.
Even though Bowers have lost three out of four, they have been in all their games, contests against Hendon & Whitehawk, both away, were only lost by one goal, whereas their home game against Chatham Town was only a 0-2 defeat, their only point came at home to Cheshunt in a 1-1 draw, so if they could just turn the tide a fraction, they will no doubt start picking up points.
Equally for Canvey it's been a similar story thus far, three of those four defeats, against Chichester City, Hashtag United & Wingate & Finchley, have only been by the one goal, the only one more than that was against Dartford when they lost 0-2, so again if they could just turn that tide for them and not against them, fractionally, then they could also start picking up some points to get them away from the bottom four places.
It needed to start today for both sides, if they could get one over a rival in doing so as well, even better, the start was all important to this contest, well, the opening forty five minutes were devoid of any real quality if truth be told, chances were at a premium, and you could see why both sides had started the season slowly, but it was Canvey who netted the only goal of the first period.
It came after twenty six had elapsed, a free kick swung into the box by Conor Hubble went to the far post where Chris Harris managed to bundle the ball over the line, not sure how, but he ended up in the net although the hosts were unhappy as they felt keeper Rhys Byrne had been fouled before the ball ended up in the net, no whistle was forthcoming though, and the goal was in keeping with the lack of quality on show, although the ball in was pretty decent it has to be said.
So, Canvey had slender lead, were they on their way to a first win to open their points account for the season, well five minutes into the second period they strengthened their grip on the contest by doubling their lead after a wonderful lung busting run down the right by full back Tobi Tinubu saw him find Finlay Dorrell who took a touch before firing across goal and into the far corner, making those Canvey fans behind that goal very happy indeed.
Canvey to go on and cruise to their first points of the campaign then no? Not quite, Bowers were never going to throw in the towel in such an important game against an Essex rival, and the longer the half went on the hosts gathered more momentum, and in the 72nd minute they got themselves right back in the contest when a lovely diagonal pass across the pitch the to right hand side found Samir Ali, who had only been on the pitch seven minutes, and he played a nice ball into the box where the waiting Valckx Fernandes was to apply a lovely first time finish into the bottom corner, game on!!!
Bowers now sensed that their opponents were getting nervous, Canvey had gone from a position of strength to now hanging on to their lead, and the hosts were trying all they could to force an equaliser, an equaliser that they thought they had found in the final ten minutes of the ninety when Fernandes sent a decent header towards goal but saw Bobby Mason pull of an incredible diving save to keep it out and maintain his sides advantage.
The hosts kept up the pressure on the visiting back line, and with six minutes of additional time, nerves were no doubt shredded amongst the visiting contingent, but when the hosts dragged a decent opening wide, they knew the game was up, and Canvey had held on to record a very hard fought win.
It's a win that takes Canvey off the bottom of the table and out of the bottom four, how things can change in an instant, especially at this time of the season when teams are tightly packed together, for Bowers well, they remain without a win this season and still just have one solitary point from five games, and they replace Canvey at the bottom of the pile, still early days though and plenty of positives to take despite a disappointing loss today.
Full time Bowers & Pitsea 1 Canvey Island 2
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