Match Report

Canvey Island moved into the top 5 of the Ryman Premier League after a stunning 4-0 demolition of Boreham Wood at Park Lane.

A crowd of 235 braved a cold evening and were rewarded with a fine performance by the Gulls. Canvey dominated this game from start to finish and continued playing the exciting, attractive football that they’ve exhibited in the last couple of matches.

Boreham Wood had former Canvey players Ollie Adedeji and Mario Noto in their starting line up and although Noto showed some decent touches at times, he was kept quiet by Kevin Dobinson who enjoyed another fine performance in the midfield.

Canvey started brightly and although Wood had a couple of brief flurries in front of goal, they started to settle and looked the better team with both Gabriel Fanibuyan and Stuart Ainsley looking lively down the wings.

The Gulls’ first chance came on 4 minutes when Leon Antoine got on the end of Craig Davidson’s right wing free kick into the penalty area but he headed just off target at the far post.

Wood keeper Anthony Anstead was then called into action twice in the space of a minute. On 14 minutes, he did brilliantly to tip an effort from Fanibuyan over the bar after the skilful winger had wriggled away from a defender and tried his luck from the edge of the area.

He was then forced to get down and make a good save to keep out Jon Edwards’s fierce low drive from the edge of the box.

It was merely a brief respite though as Canvey took the lead on 18 minutes thanks to a goal of real quality. Fanibuyan picked the ball up on the right hand edge of the penalty area and then showed great touch and awareness to side step a defender and fire a precisely placed shot beyond Anstead and into the top corner of the net. It was a sublime goal and gave Canvey the confidence to carry on attacking.

Two minutes later, they were 2-0 ahead. Edwards attempted to get into the penalty area but the linesman spotted that Wood defender Lee Harvey had cleared the ball with his hand so the referee had no option but to award a penalty. Davidson stepped up to calmly tuck his penalty home into the bottom corner of the net.

Canvey were comfortably in control of this game and their defence of Tarkan Mustafa, Chris Moore, Richard Halle and Andrew West were well disciplined and rarely gave the Wood forwards a sniff of goal.

Edwards fired a dipping volley over the bar on 39 minutes as Canvey continued to dominate but Ricky Wiseman was finally called into action on the stroke of half time making a fine save to keep Wood out. Wes Daly played a great ball from the right wing into the box that bounced off of the head of a Canvey defender and towards goal but Wiseman flung himself to his right to palm the ball away for a corner.

Canvey lead 2-0 at half time and although for the most part they looked fairly comfortable in the first half, they were determined not to lose their concentration like they did in their previous game against Carshalton and go out and seal the three points.

They did just that 4 minutes into the half and like Fanibuyan’s strike, it was another outstanding individual goal.

Ainsley, who once again impressed down the left wing picked the ball up on the left and raced towards the penalty area. He burst past a defender and from the left hand corner of the box, he curled a superb effort beyond Anstead and high into the net much to the delight of the majority of the crowd.

Canvey were playing some superb football now and their movement and passing was a joy to watch at times. Dobinson and Davidson were bossing the midfield with Edwards ably supporting them with some fine touches and passes.

Both Mustafa and West were supporting Fanibuyan and Ainsley down the wings and Mustafa in particular was having an excellent game not only getting forward well but showing great awareness at times to make important interventions and sweep up any danger at the back.

Edwards tried his luck on 53 minutes with an audacious effort from long range that just cleared the crossbar after Anstead’s weak clearance fell to him.

Canvey completed the scoring just after the hour mark getting their fourth goal again from the penalty spot. Fanibuyan was fouled by Jon Wordsworth as he broke into the penalty area and Davidson once again confidently fired his penalty home.

A rampant Canvey side nearly got a 5th minutes later. Good work by Ainsley and Davidson down the left saw the Canvey skipper lay the ball back to Antoine but the striker was off balance and fired his volley high and wide of the goal.

The match was as good as over but Canvey were determined to keep a clean sheet. Substitute Leon Archer had half a chance to reduce the arrears for Wood but saw his attempted lob from inside the area drop just over the crossbar.

Canvey brought on Ian Luck, Steve Corbell and Stuart Batch during the final 15 minutes and played out the remaining time quite comfortably.

This was another impressive performance by the Gulls who have now scored 39 goals in 18 games and remain the top scorers in the Ryman Premier League.

Canvey will look to continue their fine run of form when Tooting and Mitcham are the visitors to Park Lane on Saturday.
 
Oysterfleet Man of the Match:

CRAIG DAVIDSON:   A true captain’s performance. Drove the team on from midfield and showed great composure to score two penalties.

Match Report by David Powell.