Canvey Island rounded off their pre-season preparations with a 2-0 defeat away to Pitching In Southern League Division One Central side Welwyn Garden City.

This was a disappointing way to finish the run of friendly matches, lacking a threat up front without the injured Matt Price and losing their discipline to earn two yellow cards and a red.

Manager Mark Bentley was forced into a change after only six minutes when Ben Sampayo hobbled off having been a doubt pre-match with a tight hamstring. Henry Sims was introduced to take his place at right back.

The hosts took the lead less than 60 seconds later when the ball was played through to Cyrus Babaie who was running towards the area down the middle of the pitch. Babaie nudged the ball past Rob Girdlestone and made his way past the defender, with his shot from the right being turned in on the line by Michael Finneran who was attempting to keep it out.

Welwyn were well on top in the early exchanges and had three good opportunities to extend their advantage, two of which falling to forward Elliot Bailey.

The first came on nine minutes when Bailey drove past Finneran down the left and into the area, but his shot from a tight angle was straight at Bobby Mason who saved.

Ten minutes later the ball landed at the feet of Bailey just inside the area in a central position. There were suspicions of offside but the flag stayed down. With his back to goal, Bailey swivelled and hit a shot goalward which went wide of the bottom corner.

George Ironton then hit the site netting on 20 minutes from the edge of the box, with Bobby Mason diving full to his left trying to make the save.

Having not competed in the opening 20 minutes, Canvey began to get a foothold in the match.

Billy Knott saw a free kick from 25 yards saved following a foul on Conor Hubble after 24 minutes, and then Elliott Ronto drove a powerful shot was from slightly closer to goal after a pull back from Evans Kouassi on the left wing.

Kouassi and Ronto combined again on the half hour mark, with the former sending a delightful ball over from the left which Ronto rose to meet at the front post. However, Citizens goalkeeper Charlie Crowley did well to make connection with the ball milliseconds after Ronto, preventing it from finding the top corner.

The home side made two changes in the early stages of the second half, replacing Dave Keenleyside and Jonny Sexton with Charlie Payne and Jordan Kinoshi. The latter nearly made an instant impact on 50 minutes when he displayed some neat footwork on the left before getting a shot off, although Rob Girdlestone was well placed to keep the ball out on the line.

As is often the case, both managers took the chance to empty their substitute benches as the half progressed. Canvey spent the majority of this period on the attack, but without any success.

Evans Kouassi was constantly playing on the shoulder of the last man, but the timing of his runs meant that he often found himself offside. The times when he did manage to break through legitimately was often in wide positions, and any balls into the area were towards the diminutive Callum Fitzer which were asking a lot of the forward to fashion an effort on goal.

Welwyn Garden City didn’t see much of the ball in the second half, but when they did they doubled their lead in a rare attack on 78 minutes. A ball in from the wing was headed onto the base of the post, and Stef Ellery was on hand to tuck the loose ball home from close range.

They nearly scored another on 81 minutes when a ball over from the left was brought down at the back post by Jack Basey. His shot was well saved by the feet of Bobby Mason, and George Ironton’s follow up from 20 yards flew over the crossbar.

Things went from bad to worse with six minutes remaining with Harrison Chatting was shown a straight red card for something he said to the referee.