Although Canvey didn’t win many new friends for a 'dazzling display of exciting and entertaining football', they did bag the three points all the same tonight and, at the end of the season, it’s the goal tally, not the thrills tally, that will decide who goes up and who stays.  Just like last Saturday at Purfleet, this was a game that Canvey dominated for long spells and might have won by half a dozen goals.  Instead it was just the one goal, scored early on, followed by long, long spells of chances missed and opportunities wasted.

There were many similarities to last Saturday’s game.  The one goal came after just seven minutes but this time it was Wayne Vaughan who was on hand to ram home Steve Parmenter’s half-cleared/deflected shot.  It is a wonder that Wayno didn’t bag at least a hat-trick tonight.  He found himself through on at least five occasions but for once his ‘golden touch’ deserted him and he couldn’t increase his impressive goal tally any further.

Vaughan’s closest attempt of the evening came when a great through ball found him just on the edge of the visitors penalty area.  His shot was quick, hard and accurate and Paul Newell did well to get a hand to it and push it onto the upright.  From here it rebounded to safety and another good chance had to be recorded as a near-miss.

Canvey tended to dominate the middle of the park and created all the play in the first half.  John Kennedy looked sharp and Steve Parmenter extended his recent run of superb performances.  He almost got egg on his face though when, early in the first half, he sent a disasterous backpass straight into the path of a waiting Grays forward and it was fortuitous that Ashley Harrison was on hand to make another of his fantastic saves.

For Grays, Craig Edwards was causing a few scares and forced a couple of acrobatic saves from Harrison.  But Grays’ attacks were hardly classy stuff.  They tended to come about through quick dashes forward and long lobs down the middle.  Not very successful against a strong Canvey defence although Nathan Thomas did come close when he tried a speculative lob catching Ash off his line.  Fortunately for Canvey the lob was just a tad high and landed somewhere just in front of the sea wall.  Meanwhile Canvey continued to demonstrate that they have the ability to build attacks from deep.  Steve Tilson was behind so many Canvey attacks and once again Ben Chenery confirmed his skill and flair – but still nobody could put one away up at the sharp end.

The first half finished at 1 – 0 to Canvey and although there might have been more goals, lack of finishing power meant that the fans were as frustrated as the players.

Whereas the first half saw lots of chances for Canvey and relatively few for the visitors, fortunes were reversed after the whistle.  Grays took more control and managed to get close enough to see the whites of Harrison’s eyes on several occasions.  Canvey, on the other hand, rarely broke into the opponents’ penalty area.  No matter how hard they tried, it seemed that they just couldn’t break through.

Ian Thompson, who had come on for Chris Duffy just before half-time, looked just as fast tonight as he did last Saturday and was responsible for injecting some enthusiasm into the game.  His speed and tenacity will make him a popular and successful Canvey player.

Disappointment at the lack of goals, but celebrations nonetheless at three more well deserved points.  Now comes the chance to give the pursuit of the league title a rest for a while and show Telford just what we southerners are made of.  A performance like tonight’s won’t be good enough next Saturday, but we all know that this team of ours can lift their game to new heights when they want to – let’s just hope they want to.

Match Report by Merv

Weather Conditions:  Cold evening with plenty of wind and rain

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