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Canvey's Ten Men Hold On For Replay As if the number of players unavailable to Jeff King through injury and suspension was not bad enough, it got worse this afternoon when goalkeeper Ashley Harrison was sent off early in the second half. Although Canvey's 10 men fought bravely to hold onto their two goal lead it was a hill just to steep and, in the end, they must have been relieved to hear the final whistle blow. The King's Men live to fight another day - next Monday to be exact. From the very start this looked as if it might be an exciting game with plenty of goals. Both keepers were forced to come off their respective lines in the early minutes to make saves and the crossbar came to Canvey's aid when, after 9 minutes, No. 10 Martin Buglione hit a powerful shot that Harrison could only get fingertips to. At the sea-wall end there was plenty of action and both Chris Duffy and Paul Cobb had early scoring opportunities but neither was able to connect with the ball and visiting goalkeeper Alex O'Reilly had a couple of early let-offs. There was an early 'goal' for Canvey but in the very clever build-up play the linesman judged that the ball had gone over the line for a goal-kick and so it was disallowed. At the other end it was the talented No. 7 Paul Linger who was causing most problems for the Canvey defence but almost all the Purfleet attacks were coming through long high balls and the likes of Linger and John Keeling running onto them. Once Canvey closed this route down the visitors found it more and more difficult to get into scoring situations. On half an hour it was a piece of good refereeing that allowed Canvey to set up a good scoring situation. Chris Duffy had been unceremoniously brought down just on the edge of the Purfleet penalty area. The game might have stopped for a free-kick but the referee allowed the ball to be played out to the right into the path of Lee Boylan. Canvey's top scorer kept running towards goal but with perfect timing he released the ball to Paul Cobb who was running into the 6yd box. Cobby connected perfectly and hammered home from close range to give Canvey a well deserved lead. Canvey gradually got into the driving seat and looked to be in control of the game. They were lots of near misses and whenever John Kennedy got the ball on the right or Chris Duffy got it on the left, O'Reilly braced himself for problems. On 37 minutes Mark Stimson had the ball in midfield and he hit a perfectly weighted ball into the path of Duffy who was luring out on the left. Duffers collected the ball, steadied himself and sent over a powerful low cross, aimed at Paul Cobb. Before Cobby could get close enough to connect Purfleet's Dean Chandler came lunging in and sent the ball spinning into his own net. Several hundred spectators around me (10yds away from the goalmouth) were somewhat surprised when the PA announced a second goal for Paul Cobb and, Cobby himself claimed it when he was asked at half-time (although eye witnesses report that like Pinocchio, his nose was getting longer and longer as he spoke). Whoever it was that scored, it was a good goal and just reward for the more purposeful, more direct and more entertaining style of football that Canvey were playing. Harrison was rarely troubled in defence with Dicks, Ward and Bennett able to take out most of the dangerous looking moves and Ash coming off his line very quickly to clear any stray attacks that breached the defence. Half Time: Canvey Island 2 Purfleet 0 The second half was less than five minutes old when, quite uncharacteristically, Ashley Harrison fouled a Purfleet's Keith Martin as he came into the area. Instead of clearing the ball with a hefty kick into the car-park, Ash grabbed Martin and brought him down. A rash move as the referee had no hesitation whatsoever in waving his red card with one hand and pointing to the penalty spot with the other. There was some stoppage time as Jeff King reorganised his team by bringing Steve Parmenter off, sending on substitute 'keeper Glen Johnson while Harrison made his way towards the tunnel. Johnson's first task was to face a John Keeling penalty and fans' greatest fear was that the young 'keepers first touch of the ball would be to pick it out of the net. As it happens, Keeling hammered the ball into the upright from where it bounced to safety, eventually being kicked behind for a corner. It was from this point on that Canvey rather lost the plot. The balance of the team, already upset with the absence of Steve Tilson, Mick Bodley, Ben Chenery, Peter Smith and Neil Gregory, suddenly got even more out of kilter. There were no bad performances individually but collectively they just couldn't gel into the cohesive unit that has achieved so much recently. Purfleet now found it a bit easier to get into the danger zone and some of the saves that Johnson was forced to pull off, in one-on-one situations, were simply fantastic. Having raised their game by a couple of degrees, Purfleet looked far more dangerous and were determined to test the young substitute goalkeeper. They eventually got onto the scoresheet after 77 minutes with a well taken goal by substitute Keith Martin when he rounded Johnson on the edge of the area and hit home with relative ease from 15 yards out. With the score now at 2 - 1 Purfleet sensed that they could pull something out of the hat and that's exactly what Paul Linger did some ten minutes later. Once again Johnson did extremely well to come off his line and he pulled off one brave save but unfortunately he couldn't gather the ball cleanly and it fell just right for Linger. From several yards out on the left he hit the ball hard and low towards goal and although Steve Ward managed to get a foot to the ball, all he could do was help it into the net. So the game finished all square and a replay at The Hotel on Monday evening. By then Jeff should have a few of his injury problems sorted and Canvey will have another chance to click back into the sort of form that, since Burnley, they have been seeking so desperately to recover. Match Report by Merv and Photos by Ian to follow... Teams
Weather Conditions: Cold damp afternoon with slight breeze. What did you think of
today's match?
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