August 20th 2002. Canvey Island have just put in quite possibly one of their worst performances ever witnessed at Park Lane in losing 4-0 to newly promoted Bishops Stortford.  It seems the bubble has well and truly burst. Is this the same team that beat Football League sides Wigan and Northampton and gave Burnley an almighty scare just a couple of months earlier?

In a sense yes and no. Yes, the players on display were wearing the yellow and blue of Canvey but no, in terms of who was out on the field. The team that played that night was different in personnel and playing positions. It was a totally new Canvey and it didn’t look good.
Flash forward nine months to the present day and Canvey have just finished the Ryman Premier season in second place behind champions Aldershot Town. Credit must be paid to the ‘Shots’.

They won 33 of their 46 league games, finished with an overall total of a whopping 105 points and conceded just 36 goals. What can’t be denied though is the sheer quality of some of the football seen at Park Lane this season. Some of the attacking performances witnessed especially in the second half of the season were truly exhilarating. Players such as Jeff Minton, Lee Boylan and John Kennedy provided fans with some great entertainment as sexy football, the Canvey way lit up the Ryman league.

Some fans will dismiss this season as a disappointment, a failure even. There were no big FA Cup ties and giant killings (our cup run was ended by lowly Slough but that can wait till later), there was no long run in the Trophy, our defence of the Essex Senior Cup was woeful and the one chance we had of winning any silverware this season was thrown away with a diabolical display against Ryman First Division Yeading in the Bryco Cup final.

Many will say that we never offered a concerted challenge to Aldershot, only on one occasion did we get within three points of the leaders. Despite these drawbacks, the season was another exciting one for the fans with so many ups and downs and some great attacking football along the way. Let’s go back to the beginning though.

Canvey endured a pretty traumatic summer as established players that the team had been built around left for pastures new. The likes of Steve Tilson, Peter Smith, Wayne Vaughan and most controversially Mark Stimson left for new challenges elsewhere. Mick Bodley retired and it soon became apparent that Ashley Harrison and Steve Ward would miss the opening weeks of the season through a honeymoon and a holiday respectively.

New players were brought in but it was obvious that it would be difficult to replace the likes of Tilson, Stimson and Bodley who contributed so much to Canvey’s recent successes.

During the pre season friendlies it became apparent that it would take a while for the team to gel.
As the friendlies produced a mixture of indifferent results (five goal hammerings against Folkestone and Gravesend) some supporters were not particularly optimistic about the season ahead. How long would the team take to click as a unit and would there be a hangover after last season’s near miss?

Canvey are notorious slow starters but even by their standards, their start to the season was atrocious. Four defeats in the opening six games including that thrashing by Stortford, had left Canvey in the unfamiliar position of lower mid table. The defence was all over the place, the midfield lacked creavity and up front even Lee Boylan looked a shadow of the player who scored well over 40 goals the previous season. The team seemed directionless and very little good football was being played.

A 6-1 thrashing of Aylesbury seemed to have stopped the rot and for the next couple of games, things improved slightly. During this time Canvey recorded an impressive 2-0 win over a Grays’ side who had now appointed Stimmo as manager and featured several ex Canvey players. In front of a crowd of over 800, Stimmo received a hostile welcome. It wouldn’t be the last time that his team would be outclassed by the Gulls.
There was still something not quite right though. The defence was still giving away too many cheap goals and there was a distinct failure to play well for the entire 90 minutes. Winning positions were squandered against Braintree and Purfleet and in too many games, Canvey were looking distinctly mediocre even in recording a victory but as we approached the FA Cup 4th Qualifying Round tie away to Slough, it seemed that despite our problems another money spinning FA Cup tie was definitely in the equation.

How wrong we were. Despite taking an early lead, Canvey found themselves 2-1 down at half time. Bertie Brayley got us back in to the game but as I stood stuffing myself with jelly babies at a rate of one every couple of seconds in an attempt to calm my nerves, it was obvious that things were wrong on the pitch. The commitment wasn’t there, players were being played out of position. Slough scored their inevitable winning goal and our FA Cup run came to an end at the hands of a Ryman First Division side.

Sitting on the coach coming home, it was devastating listening to the first round draw, knowing we were not there. Never have Canvey fans been so angry after a game. Something had to change and quickly.

The next couple of games continued in the same vein, with the team being wildly inconsistent.  Canvey were nearly 15 points behind the leaders and were in 8th place at the start of December. Mediocrity seemed very possible but then something clicked. It’s hard to pinpoint when the change took place but the opening twenty minutes of the 2-2 draw with Hayes seems the best bet.

Although the team did lose the plot, that opening 20 minutes saw some tremendous attacking football being displayed. If only they could do this for the majority of the game!  Slowly but surely Canvey began to string together a few results. In between the 3-2 defeat to Purfleet in November to the 1-0 loss to Hendon in April, Canvey went 17 league games unbeaten and won 11 in a row. During this period there was another impressive victory over Stimmo’s Grays at the Rec and 4-0 hammerings over Hampton and Basingstoke. The team suddenly looked to have gelled. Lee Boylan was scoring goals for fun, Jeff Minton was unbelievable in midfield even the defence was beginning to look solid and the football being played was of the highest quality.

Meanwhile our FA Trophy run came to an end at the fourth round stage with a narrow 2-1 defeat to Conference side Northwich Victoria but only after we had given them a real scare.

With Aldershot having a bit of a blip around Christmas, by February we had closed the gap to just seven points. Unfortunately ‘Shots’ regained their momentum and a couple of dodgy results in March/April meant we went into a massive game with Aldershot on April 15th six points behind with Shots having a game in hand. The game itself had everything. Controversy, atmosphere, passion, some crowd trouble and some good football, played out in front of a record Park Lane crowd of just over 3,500. Unfortunately it didn’t have a Canvey win as a penalty from Roscoe Dsane gave ‘Shots’ a 1-0 victory that virtually guaranteed them the title.

For the third year running we had finished second and were left ruing our atrocious start to the season.
There was still more drama to come in the remaining weeks of the season. A 10-1 annihilation of already relegated Enfield brought the season at Park Lane to a fitting conclusion. The final match of the season was a lacklustre display against Yeading in the Bryco Cup final at Hornchurch as the team let themselves down badly.

So what have been the plus points of the season? Whilst Jeff Minton may have won the player of the season award, in my opinion Lee Boylan was just as deserving. After a slow start he recovered to score 47 goals and his finishing and technique are quite simply outstanding. His work rate is unbelievable and without a shadow of a doubt, he is one of the best strikers in the non-league game at the moment.
In terms of the best signing, Jeff Minton wins hands down. After taking a time to settle he put in some mesmerising performances and much more is expected of him next season. Credit must go to the likes of Gavin Cowan, Kevin Dobinson, Danny Potter and Lee Protheroe who were all brought in and have done excellent jobs.

Special mention must go to Micky Bennett who has to be the most improved player at the club.  He may look like ‘Big Dave’ from the Pot Noodle adverts but he has been a colossus in midfield and defence.

To finish, what are my overriding memories of this season, good and bad? Well obviously the Stortford and Slough debacles are high up the list but I have many good ones. The three matches with Grays especially the 6-0 Bryco Cup hammering. Seeing Jeff Minton leave Stimmo on his backside after a great piece of skill. Lee Protheroe’s stunning first time volley at home to Maidenhead that nearly broke the net (as well as his numerous free kicks). Any one of Lee Boylan’s 40 odd goals. The 6-1 demolition of St Albans and drinking in the bar with Colin Zeal and the rest of EFM and also the way the City fans were still singing and chanting even at 6-1 down. The feeling of satisfaction and the atmosphere in the bar and on the coach coming home after a hard fought away win (Grays, Braintree and Sutton spring to mind). Tony Richardson’s numerous rants at referees and linesmen during the season (and there were many).

So it wasn’t such a boring season after all! Let’s hope that next season is even more exciting and just that little bit more successful. With new arrivals expected let’s hope that we can finally achieve our aim.

Lastly a big thank you to all the players, management and coaching staff and all the people behind the scenes who contributed to the season.
Also a big well done to the Yellow Army for their support home and away. Keep up the good work and let’s hope there are a few more of us next season!

Enjoy your summer and see you next season!

By David Powell (Yellow Army 2003)