Five Goal Feast

The first half at least was a feast of Football tonight, with Barking being very much under the cosh for the entire 45 minutes.  From the off Canvey picked up the ball and with fast, flowing football they held on to it for much of the half, rarely letting Barking have a look-in.

For every one attempt that Barking made on Ashley Harrison's goal, Canvey made half a dozen on Andy Hall's.  Mind you, the closest attempt fell to Barking's No. 9 Nathan Thomas after a quarter of an hour when he was put through, apparently clear on goal but Harrison did well to cover his area and made a dramatic save on the edge of the box.

Credit must go to Barking.  They chased every single ball and it is not difficult to see why they are riding high in the Ryman 2nd Division.  They showed lots of fighting spirit, but in the first half at least, they couldn't hold onto the ball long enough to do anything effective with it.

John Kennedy was given acres of space on the right flank and every time the ball was fed through to him, a Canvey attack looked imminent.  On 31 minutes it was such a ball, fed out beautifully to JK's feet by Micky Bennett that split the defence in half.  It was then crossed in front of a crowded goalmouth and Andy Jones was on hand to convert from close range.  A superb goal and a deserved lead for the Gulls.

Andy Hall, in the Barking goal, was not having an easy night and some of his hasty clearances were a little suspect.  When he fluffed what should have been an easy back-pass on 38 minutes, the ball barely went 20 yards before it was pushed back to Neil Gregory who made it look easy as he slotted the ball under the helpless keeper to make it two - nil.

There were two distinct styles of play on view now.  Canvey were demonstrating the skill of close passing and constant possession.  Barking, on the other hand, were heavily into lob and run.  Some of their runs, when they were directly at the Canvey defence, caused problems, but the truth is that Harrison's goal was rarely troubled.

Canvey's third goal came from a Steve Tilson penalty.  Steve Parmenter was brought down inside the box and the referee, Mr McQueen, had no hesitation in pointing to the spot.

And so the first half finished with Canvey three goals in front and, on an extremely heavy and muddy pitch, they deserved the lead.

The second half was quite a different story.  When Nathan Thomas 'scored' an off-side goal on 46 minutes it was a warning sign to the Canvey defence that these guys wanted to make a game of it.  It was their defence, continually ripped to shreds by Canvey's forwards, that let them down and it was no surprise then goal number four came after 52 minutes.  This time it was JK's turn to be on the scoresheet as, instead of crossing one of the many balls he was fed out on the right, he came in, saw the whites of Hall's eyes and scored a fine goal of his own.

But it was in defence that Canvey appeared to get the jitters.  Barking ran at them and they seemed to back off.  There were far too many goalmouth scrambles for a team of Canvey's pedigree and Barking were unlucky on 66 minutes when Jon Buffong rattled the crossbar.

It was another scramble at the back that led to Barking being awarded a penalty on 77 minutes and Tony Barnes converted from the spot.

There was never any danger that Canvey would lose this one, their lead and their hold on the game were both unassailable, but nobody told Barking this and they continued to rattle the visitors whenever they ran through.  Nathan Thomas pulled another goal back with six minutes to go but the game was finally put beyond their reach one minute later when Ramsay handled the ball in his own penalty area and Tilly strode up to score his second penalty, and Canvey's fifth goal of the night.

Match Report by Merv.

Weather Conditions:  Damp evening with a very heavy and wet pitch. 

What did you think of today's match? 
Who was YOUR man of the match?
Any comments at all on the match?
 
Share your thoughts on the
Discussion Board - yes it is back!