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COME ON YOU, Ermm, BLUES Seven
days ago Canvey Island fans witnessed some excellent football, but still their
team managed to lose. Today was the total opposite, the football played was
sending what Canvey fans there were to sleep but, at the end of ninety minutes,
the Gulls had three points in the bag. Canvey fans were surprised to see Lee Boylan limp into the bar before the game
and Bertie Brayley was his replacement. Ben Chenery was re-called to the
starting line-up in favour of Chris Perkins after coming through a full game
last Tuesday, while hot prospect Michael Lee earned a call-up to the substitutes
bench.
Another surprising factor of today's game was the kits. Enfield's home strip of
white and blue was unnecessarily matched with Canvey's pale-blue and white away
kit. This caused chaos amongst the fans as the white and blue seemed to merge
from the terraces and it was even worse on corners with Perez's 'keeper kit
sporting the same blue of Canvey. There were enough Canvey fans wearing this
season's design to swap with the squad and overcome the problem. Anyway on with
the game... It's a pity that Enfield have to ground-share with Boreham Wood, there was no
atmosphere at today's game and even the small number of travelling Canvey fans
outnumbered the Enfield fans by at least two to one. The pitch was very muddy too,
especially around the centre circle and even worse in the goalmouths. Canvey got the game off to reasonable start and on only eight minutes Bertie
Brayley had the ball in the back of the net. But his effort was ruled out for
offside. Just a minute later an excellent cross from Matt Jones was skied over
the bar - again from Brayley. Things were starting to look good for Canvey and on
fourteen minutes Jeff Minton put Canvey one-up! It all began with some fancy
footwork from Scott Forbes some thirty-yards out from goal. After putting a
through-ball into the path of Neil Gregory, who pulled of a cheeky dummy by
leaving the ball for Minton. Minton sprinted into the penalty area and slotted
the ball home comfortably under Perez into the corner of the net for his fourth
of the season. From here the game dropped to a snail's pace with equally as much inspiration. Most of the play consisted in Canvey's half, conceding three very dangerous
looking free-kicks in the first half an hour. After attempting to counter-attack
one of these free-kicks, Lee Protheroe was clumsily brought down just outside
the Canvey penalty area. The result - yellow card for Demba Traore and Lee
Protheroe being stretchered off the pitch and to the hospital with a severe
ankle injury. His replacement was midfield battler Micky Bennett After Minton's goal, the game became dull and unimaginative. There was a lack of
sparkle that was taken for granted whenever the likes of Mark Stimson of Steve
Tilson played in a yellow shirt. There are many ex-pros in our squad this
season, but why aren't they providing that flair? For today's game there was no
'buzz' about the game, which resulted in no 'buzz' on the terraces. Maybe
the answer is that in past seasons we have gotten used to being chased by the
rest of the league, which has given life to the club. Is it that we are
now the
chasers, this season is becoming a dull experience all round? Canvey fans hoped
for a better second half.
Half-time - Enfield 0, Canvey Island 1. Just like seven days ago though, Canvey were put under the cosh from the E's for
most of the second half. Enfield were getting ever so closer to an equaliser. But on a Canvey break Neil Gregory had the ball at his feet. He managed to round
Lionel Perez, but just as Gregors was about to hit the ball home, it bobbled in
a divot and the chance was seen to be wasted. However Gregory kept going and
managed to keep the ball in play. His cross met the head of Bertie Brayley, but
his effort was lame and the chance, like so many of Brayley's, was wasted. Canvey managed to gradually find their footing and Scott Forbes was unlucky to
see an effort from a corner go just wide of the far post. This scare was all
Enfield could take and they decided that they actually wanted to get something
from this game and this time it was they who decided to up the pace. Once again,
just like Purfleet, Enfield proved that if you run at the Canvey defence they
will often back away or give away silly free-licks in dangerous positions - as
was proved in the first half today. On eighty-one minutes one of the Enfield attacks did result in a free-kick being
given to the E's, the only trouble was it was inside the Canvey penalty area, so
naturally the referee pointed to the spot. It was Demba Traore who converted
the spot-kick and Enfield were on level terms with just nine minutes to go. You
would think that with this cheap blow to the Canvey ranks, they would attempt to
up their play even further. But unfortunately there was no change of style from
Canvey, with no substitutions from the bench - not even to replace the tiring
Matt Jones or under-performing Bertie Brayley. If Canvey practise anything from today's game this Thursday evening, please let
it be throw-ins! We still look embarrassing when taking a throw-in. They usually
lead to nothing and gives the opposition a chance to counter-attack us against
the run of play! With just three minutes to go Neil Gregory collected the ball on the half-way
line and proceeded to bomb his way down the left flank, his inch perfect cross
met the head of the incoming Scott Forbes, who, from the most acute angle
possible, managed to put the ball in the back of the net at the far post! Just
the correct score-line for a game of such 'inspirational play'. It is said that
you can have 99% of the play in a game and still lose, but on other days such as
today you can play 'bad' and still win. With word still to come through on the seriousness of Lee Protheroe's injury,
can we look forward to another entertaining FA Trophy run? All will be revealed
when we entertain Carshalton Athletic at Park Lane next weekend
Full-time - Enfield 1, Canvey Island 2.
Match Report by Matt. Teams
Weather Conditions: Dry, mild afternoon. Very heavy pitch. What did you think of
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