They say football is a game of two halves. Well, this was a game of at least four halves, if you take the extra time into account, and Canvey played a different game in each of them. They ranged from poor to pathetic, from dire to diabolical. "Never mind, we’ll concentrate on the league!" was the excuse being bandied around for much of the first 90 minutes. In truth, few people expected to see Canvey extricate themselves from the mess they got themselves into. Then, with only a few minutes of the match to go, it was back to the old glory, glory days and everyone went home happy.

After 10mins the Canvey defence was giving away far too much room out on the left and a long cross found the head of their No.10, (Peter Leete) giving him the opportunity to put Histon one nil up. The Jewson League side went two nil up only nine minutes later when, after a silly defensive mistake, one of their forwards was upended in the Canvey penalty area and No. 7 (Shaun Harrington) converted from the spot. At this point Canvey lost all sense of direction and, to be frank, looked as if they didn’t really want to play.

Add to this some poor refereeing and the frustration was plain to see. It was a rather silly booking for Lindsey after 17mins when, nowhere near the ball or the action, he was booked of bad-mouthing. Quite an unfortunate mistake because when he was booked again, in the second half, it meant that he had to go. To be down to ten men when you are losing 3 – 2 is not the strongest position to be in.

At the back, Blakeborough had another good game and Williams was again on-form, enjoying his new deeper role. Jonah was having a very good game but Canvey kept pushing high balls up the middle. Good though the Canvey forwards are, the present line-up does lack height and Histon’s No 4 (Roscoe Hipperson) was having a field day, rarely, if ever, beaten in the air. It was when Canvey played the ball of the floor that they looked dangerous. This has been a trend in Canvey’s play over the past three seasons. Jeff or Glen should drum it into the team’s collective head that they play better and meet with much more success when they play the ball on the deck. In fairness to Williams, he does manage to get his fair share of high balls , in spite of his lack of height, but all too often the play seems to go directly from defenders to attackers, missing out the men in the middle. Fine if it works, but once we meet a tall defence it simply means that we give up the midfield to the opposition.

Brian Horne started the game in the Canvey goal but, at half time, it was decided to give new boy Glenn Ballard an outing. He had a good game and looked safe, both with direct shots and high crosses.

On the hour Tilly brought a beautiful ball back from the line and Andy Jones met it with his head to snatch one back for Canvey. What a difference a goal makes! Once Jonah had pulled one back, Canvey moved up a gear and began to look both entertaining and dangerous with much more attacking play. This cheered up the crowd and their vocal encouragement lifted the team. Unfortunately this only lasted 12 minutes when Histon were awarded a rather dubious free kick 20yds out. Whilst the Canvey defence was organising itself the referee signified to Histon that play could continue and, without even blowing his whistle, the kick was taken, a long high ball went in the net to Ballard’s right. The Canvey players and crowd were stunned to be 3 - 1 down.

Jones had gone off just after scoring and Reilley came on. I still don’t understand why these two players aren’t played together. Unfortunately, Reilley himself was substituted a quarter of an hour later, after taking a knock. Jeff Brazier came on and immediately, Canvey took on a different shape. Out were the high balls and in was the sharp passing and running that Canvey do so well. They began to look for, and find, open spaces. Canvey were rewarded for their positive play in the 82^nd minute Donovan picked up a loose ball on the edge of the Histon area and pushed the ball under the advancing keeper to bring Canvey back with a fighting chance.

The Canvey fans were convinced that the equaliser would come – their team had at last found the confidence to run with the ball and explore the empty spaces. It might have come through a penalty when, almost a minute into injury time, Canvey were denied an obvious spot kick. Porter (Swampy) was brought down badly by two players in the Histon penalty, "Play on," said the ref! A similar foul on Alan Brett had been ignored a few minutes earlier and then, two minutes later, yet another foul was committed inside the 18yd box, this time on Tilson. For the third time the referee was determined that Canvey were not going to be given a penalty. However, Canvey kept plugging away and in what must have been the 93^rd minute, a powerful cross by Tilson into the Histon goal area hit defender Andy Mee on the shin and he could do nothing but put it into his own goal, just inside the near post.

The whistle went for full time and Histon couldn’t really believe what had happened to them. Without ever really playing well, they had managed to give Canvey the run around and been 2 – 0 up for the first part of the game and 3 – 1 for much of the rest. The crowd sensed that Canvey could now complete the job they had started so badly and began to get behind the team. Whether the positive play on the field lifted the fans or the noise from the terraces lifted the team, I don’t know. But whatever it was, it felt good. There was no way Canvey were going to give away the advantage and this was confirmed after only two minutes of extra time when Brazier, brought on earlier for Reilley, kept chasing where other players might have given up. He ran through two defenders to toe poke the ball past the keeper and the fans went wild.

Just to prove it wasn’t fluke, Alan Brett put the match beyond doubt five minutes into the second half. A cross found Williams six yards out with his back to goal. He managed to lift the ball over his own head where it found Bretty both willing and able to make it 5 – 3.

Why do Canvey make such hard work of this type of game? Perhaps they didn’t give Histon enough respect. The scoreline seems a bit unfair to them but, in all honesty, they never really looked like winners. Until Canvey play Wingate & Finchley (away) on 3^rd October, it’s back to league matters with two home games coming up, Bognor on Tuesday night and Berkhamstead next Saturday. Let’s hope for two wins, but not quite so much suspense or drama. I don’t think I could take it!