Match Report by David Powell

Canvey Island made a return to matchday action with a 5-1 friendly victory over Waltham Abbey at Park Lane.

Gulls had played twice competitively in the FA Cup in the last month after having played Banbury United and Boreham Wood, and looked sharp throughout this game dominating from start to finish.

After 5 minutes, Connor Hubble curled a free-kick just wide before, on 22 minutes, a fine through pass sent Evans Kouassi clear and he rounded the keeper to tap home into the net.

Gulls continued to look the better side but a loose pass in defence allowed Waltham Abbey to draw level on 41 minutes with the forward going through to fire home past Bobby Mason.

The second half saw Gulls thoroughly dominate the match. They regained the lead on 48 minutes when Kouassi cut in from the left wing and fired across the keeper into the bottom corner of the net.

Hubble twice went close to scoring a third for Canvey. First his close-range effort from Jey Siva’s left wing cross was beaten away, and then the keeper pushed away a low driven effort from 25 yards.

Canvey scored two goals within 5 minutes to make it 4-1. On 64 minutes, Kouassi broke through and squared to Elliott Ronto who tapped home, and then a few minutes later a fine through ball found the Australian who curled the ball past the keeper.

A 5th arrived on 75 minutes when Siva found Tobi Joseph in the penalty area and he fired home via the aid of a slight deflection.

Kouassi could have grabbed a hat-trick but saw his shot on the turn come off of the crossbar with Abbey keeper Simon Bloch Jorgensen making a series of good saves in the last 15 minutes to keep the score down.