A fortnight ago we suffered a surprise home defeat to Canvey Island, losing 0-3. The Essex side may be well down the table, but they produced one of their best displays of the season, with Barnet loanee George Sykes our major nemesis. The Seagulls thoroughly deserved their victory. In stark contrast our lads had a real “off-day”.

Early on, however, we made a few threatening breaks down the left and we nearly capitalised when visiting ‘keeper Tim Brown spilled a cross from Albert Jarrett, But it soon became evident that Canvey’s defence were able to nullify our best efforts with undue difficulty and they began to cause problems themselves on the break. Indeed, it was from one such counterattack that they opened the scoring in the 19th minute. Sykes collected a long ball in the inside left channel, beat the advancing Phil Wilson on the edge of the box and then slotted into the empty net, although the retreating Terrell Forbes made a valiant effort to clear off the line. The dangerous Sykes posed a constant threat and twice went close to increasing the Islanders’ lead before the break.

At least we showed greater urgency after the interval, but all our attacks came to nothing. Shots from Ashley Carew and Serge Makofo were locked by defenders, Luke Wanadio fired straight at the ‘keeper when a pass was probably a better option and Ashley Carew pulled his shot wide from a promising position just outside the box. Then, midway through the half, Canvey struck again. Taylor Tombides made tracks down the left and passed inside to Sykes who displayed an excellent touch before firing past Phil Wilson and into the roof of the net from 15 yards. Five minutes later, the game was all over. Tombides broke again down our right flank and this time his cross saw Jack Simmons give Phil Wilson no chance, his decisive finish completing the scoring.