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EAGLE-EYED GULLS KNOCK ROBINS OUT OF TROPHY!!!
For the past two seasons Canvey Island Football Club have had
great success in the FA
Trophy. They were winners in
2000/01 after the greatest day in their history at Villa Park and they
marginally lost out to the eventual winners, Yeovil Town, last year.
Today it started again when Canvey were hosts to Carshalton Athletic, a
team riding high at the top of the Ryman League Division 1 South.
Over recent seasons Carshalton
have picked up the odd Canvey player, including fans' favourite, Simon Liddle. Today they
lined up with another ex-Canvey man in their ranks, Keith Dublin, now promoted
to the Robins' Captain. For Canvey,
Lee Boylan and Micky Bennett returned to the starting line-up, with Paul Cobb,
fresh from a loan spell at Heybridge Swifts, returning to the substitutes bench.
Canvey began the game shooting towards the sea-wall end but before the KO I
sensed a definite sense of doubt from the Yellow Army regarding this fixture.
Those doubts were almost put to rest after ten minutes when Matt
Jones put in a deep cross that evaded the goalkeeper and Neil Gregory (looking as
if he'd used a step-ladder to get so high in the air) headed the ball just across
the face of the goal and watched it bobble inches wide of the far post.
Unfortunately after this white-knuckle scare, most of the first half
belonged to Carshalton. Canvey were
losing possession too easily and didn't seem to be firing on all cylinders.
Some extra 'oomph' was needed to boost the Canvey play, but no-one seemed
to want to take the game to their opponents.
In fact it was only due to poor finishing from the Robins that Canvey
didn't concede a sloppy goal. Carshalton
earned some very dangerous looking free-kicks and again, it was only down too
poor finishing, that Carshalton didn't take the lead. On
half an hour Canvey's very own National Game International John Kennedy managed
to get onto the end of a Lee Boylan cross and weave the ball around Stuart
Searle, but after taking a nasty bobble, JK couldn't get the angle on his shot
and he sliced the ball, up and over the crossbar.
This was the last straw for Carshalton, they were close to a Cardiac
Arrest and upped their game big time! They
took over the half and Canvey were finding it hard to get back into the game.
With no playmaker and nobody prepared to make even a half-hearted run,
Carshalton were easy winners in the first-half and, judging by that
performance, Robins fans had hard evidence to suggest that the nil-nil
score-line was flattering Canvey and they were being robbed of prize money and maybe a
good draw in the next round.
Half-time
- Canvey Island 0,
Carshalton Athletic 0 It
would seem that Canvey boss Jeff King was also disappointed with the first-half
performance. He made an extremely rare half-time substitution with the ever
improving Steve Parmenter replacing Scott Forbes. This also allowed a change in position with John Kennedy
reprising his winger role and Parmenter moving into the centre of midfield, along
side Jeff Minton. To the fans, this
line-up seemed all
too obvious from the start and they were amazed
that it took forty-five minutes for the Canvey management to
realise that their initial team selection was, quite simply...wrong!
At last, the
midfield seemed to be able to bond together and string passes together.
One such build up resulted in Jeff Minton putting a through ball into the
path of John Kennedy. JK put in an
excellent cross from the right that evaded the Robins' defence and landed at the
feet of captain, Neil Gregory. But
miraculously, with the goalkeeper stranded, Gregors managed to put the ball wide
from just two yards out. Everyone felt his frustration when he smashed his foot
against the hoardings and there were murmurs of it being one of 'those' games.
Canvey built up attack after attack and when Lee Boylan was set-up nicely
by Gregors from just ten yards out the Yellow Army sensed that soon,
eventually, maybe one goal would come. Boylan's
effort was a difficult one, the angle was just too acute and the ball once
again rolled agonisingly past the far post. If
ever refereeing decisions were biased and a team was denied any freedom of
movement, it was today. The referee, Mr. O'Keefe, was blowing up for even the
slightest nudge by a Canvey man and both the 'Assistant Referees' were giving
appalling off-side decisions. Remember men, it's when the ball is played! Not
when it's received!!! The most 'iffy' decision came when, once again, John Kennedy
managed to poke the ball past his man and had to manoeuvre from behind his
marker to collect the ball once more. It
was here the 'Assistant Referee' raised his flag at the simple call of a player,
but the referee didn't realise until Lee Boylan had struck the ball which
ultimately did end up in the back of the net.
But still things were looking up for Canvey. They managed to put together three very
good chances within six minutes of
the second half. Neil Gregory had
Canvey's first shot on target. A
free-kick wide out on the left from Mark Brennan was headed on target by
Gregor's but Searle had positioned himself well and collected the ball
comfortably in his arms. Carshalton
didn't give up the battle though and for them Scott Todd looked to be their
danger man. He caused some problems
for the Canvey defence, but realistically, Carshalton never looked like they
were going to score. When Canvey
managed to retain possession they began to play to feet and looked a lot better
for it. While Carshalton could only
rely on the long-ball up field and the speed of Todd.
On seventy minutes Neil Gregory managed to nod a ball on to the feet of Minton.
This almost took Minton by surprise but he still managed to hit the ball well, but the
oncoming Searle just managed to get enough touch of the ball to slow down it's
trajectory and knock it round the post. This
should have been Canvey's second of the game but still the scorecard remained
blank. Canvey had now gone into
overdrive, they knew they could score and began to run the game.
They were taking it in turns to shoot but Canvey just couldn't score.
The closest effort was from Matt Jones's replacement Bertie Brayley.
His shot just didn't have enough curl to reach the far post, but perhaps a simple cross rather than a selfish shot would
have easily been converted by the
unmarked Neil Gregory. With
just eleven minutes remaining, Jeff Minton made a daring run down the left,
cutting inside right on the by-line and pulling the ball back into the penalty
area. Steve Parmenter was first to
the ball and his punt hit the underside of the crossbar and over the line for
Canvey's long deserved first. This
was just rewards for all of Canvey's second-half efforts. Just
to make sure that Parmenter's goal was no fluke. and to quash any beliefs that
the Carshalton fans might have had that they might be able to rescue a replay
from this game Jeff Minton managed to
get himself on the score-sheet for his fifth of the season. After a little penalty area pinball the ball fell kindly to
Minton who hammered home past Searle from just inside the edge of the area.
Two - nil to Canvey and that just about settled the game for the Gulls.
They
could have (and deserved to) get more than just two, especially when Bertie Brayley
showed a bit more of his selfishness and denied Paul Cobb a returning goal, by
hanging on to the ball too long, eventually wasting the good build up with a lame
effort. Cobby was screaming for the ball! When John Kennedy was blatantly knocked off the ball in the penalty area the referee just about summed up his awfulness by playing on and letting Lee Boylan get on the receiving end of some rough treatment from Michael Johnson and the hoardings he was swept into. But still, it's Canvey into the next round and if they can play the same gracing skill as they did for most of today's second half, perhaps a solid Trophy run is possible.
Full-time
- Canvey Island 2,
Carshalton Athletic 0. Match Report by Matt Teams
Weather Conditions: Cold day with a heavy pitch. Light rain later on What did you think of
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