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Ryman League Cup Victory The wind blew the rain across the Park Lane pitch tonight in bucketfuls. In spite of a tremendous effort by the groundstaff, the pitch resembled a swimming pool but, surprisingly, the standard of football was high. Both teams did their best to lift the spirits of the fans and the ball moved around at considerable speed in an entertaining game of football. With a total of 16 team changes in the programme, both teams suffered something of a shake-up, but the difference was that with Canvey, you didn't really notice. The squad that Jeff King has built up is so strong that he was able to field a starting side without Bennett, Gregory, Miller, Parmenter, Smith, Stimson or Tilson (all excellent players and good enough for any premier side) and they still looked strong and determined. New boy Adam Tanner was on show tonight and he looked impressive, with either foot! It was nice to see Steve Clark out there for the full 90 minutes and, in spite of the heavy conditions, it was pretty much one way traffic for the first 45 minutes. Clark forced a superb save from stand-in 'keeper Darren Smith on just three minutes, but it was Andy Jones who did all the donkey work in setting the chance up. From the resulting corner Canvey were unlucky to see the ball cleared off the line for the first in a series of G&N let-offs. The pitch was forcing lots of mistakes, especially in the G&N defence, but this was probably due to the pressure they found themselves under. Canvey forced six corners in the first ten minutes whereas Gravesend's first shot didn't come until the game was half an hour old. Steve Rasterick broke through and forced Ashley Harrison to make one of his dynamic saves. In general, the Canvey defence was coping well on the heavy surface. With Mick Bodley in the middle things always looked safe. It was only Nick Hegley who was finding any success for the visitors, but he wasn't getting anything like enough support. Harrison almost got onto the scoresheet himself with one of his long goal-kicks. Such was the strength of the wind the ball soared through the air for the full length of the pitch and it took a nifty save by Smith to keep it out of the net. The goal that fans had been waiting for came on 44 minutes and it was just reward for Andy Jones who had been working hard through the middle. He jinxed his way to the edge of the area, layed it off and then got into a scoring position just as the ball was pushed back to him. Mind you, this did make up for the couple of sitters he missed just a few minutes earlier! It's always a good psychological move to score just before the half-time whistle. It's doubly good to come out and score one straight after the second half starts. And it was that man Jonah again. This time he was just a touch fortunate when Matt Lee fumbled a relatively easy ball on the edge of his own penalty area. Jonah was in like a flash, past Lee and he chose his spot to put the ball past Smith and suddenly it was two-nil. Gravesend managed to lift their game in the second half, aided by a strong wind behind them. They seemed to find space more easily and their defence was tighter. But it was at the other end where they couldn't make any dents in Canvey's armour. On the half-way line they demonstrated good passing skills and good use of space, but it doesn't count for anything in the middle of the park. It only counts in the danger area, just on the edge of the box. Wayne Vaughan was unlucky on the hour when he was set up well, but he was unlucky not to be able to connect cleanly and his shot went just high and just wide. Gravesend's best effort forced a superb save from Harrison with just 10 minutes to go. Danny Jeffery did well to run through the Canvey defence and suddenly had a one on one with Ashley. Ash was off his line very quickly and threw himself at Jeffrey's feet to save what looked like a certain scoring opportunity. The game continued with near misses at both ends, but no more goals. Good entertaining football on a filthy night when all sane people ought to be sitting at home watching Eastenders. Canvey now travel to Croydon in the next round, to be played on Monday 5th February. Match Report by Merv Teams
Canvey - Ashley
Harrison, John
Kennedy, Craig Davidson, Ben
Chenery, Mick
Bodley, Steve
Ward, Adam Tanner, Chris
Duffy, Steve
Clark, Wayne
Vaughan, Andy Jones,
Subs: Neil Gregory, Steve
Parmenter, Steve
Tilson, Weather Conditions: Horizontal rain falling in bucketfuls. Very wet and slippery pitch What did you think of
today's match?
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