Canvey Island 0-3 Enfield Town

Match Report by David Powell
Photo Credit - Dan Goody

Canvey Island suffered their third defeat in a week, this time going down 3-0 at home to playoff chasing Enfield Town.

Despite a solid first half performance, the Gulls couldn't capitalise on momentum, allowing their opponents to run away with the match in the second half.

Canvey were buoyed by the return of key players to the line up, with Conor Hubble and Joe Paxman making their return from injury. New signing Rio Davidson-Phipps also started in the midfield.

The Gulls started brightly and after just five minutes, they won a free kick 25 yards out. Hubble stepped up and hit a fierce effort that crashed against the crossbar, the ball bouncing upwards before hitting the top of the bar again to finally go out.

Enfield weren't going to lay down however, and responded in kind with chances of their own. Sam Jackson did well to deny Reece Beckles Richards from close range after he broke through the Canvey backline.

Another big chance fell to Canvey on 33 minutes after good work from Charlie Edwards saw him launch a ball into the box. Rio Davidson-Phipps battled well to win the ball on the byline, but opted to drive in a shot from a tight angle rather than square Bradley Sach, seeing his effort dealt with by visiting keeper Rhys Forster.

Into the second half and it was the visitors who came out with more intensity after a shaky first 45 minutes. An early chance fell to Reece Beckles-Richards, who found himself unmarked in the area as the ball was delivered into the box, but he guided his header wide of Jackson's post to spurn a big chance.

They'd remain in the hot seat however and made their good spell of possession count when they took the lead on 66 minutes.
Emmanuel Harvest was allowed to find space on the edge of the area and hit a solid drive through a packed penalty area. Jackson saw it late and could only parry the ball to just in front of goal, allowing an unmarked Sam Youngs to fire home to score against Canvey for the third time this season.

Worse was to follow on 73 minutes as more lapse defending from the Gulls allowed Enfield danger man Marcus Wyllie space to get past several defenders before firing home and extend his sides scoreline.

Sam Higgins was introduced in the hope of pulling a goal back, but the visiting defence did their best to frustrate him. Canvey's best chance at a goal again fell to Edwards late in the game, but he could only his header from a corner over the bar.

A miserable second half was completed on 89 minutes when Wyllie ended the contest with his second goal after picking up a pass from Lewis Taffe and firing home to win the game.

It completed another frustrating afternoon for the Gulls, who will be hoping to restore some pride in a local derby against high flying Billericay Town next weekend.