The Gulls continued their FA Cup journey yesterday as they played hosts to Newmarket Town, new Manager, Kevin Horlock, had his first chance to see the Gulls in action who were coming off the back of a narrow 3-2 defeat on the road against Bowers & Pitsea last Monday.

The Visitors kicked-off the afternoon to get our 26/27 FA Cup campaign underway, and it was a fairly even start between the two sides, then, just before the tenth minute the Gulls had an early opportunity to take the lead when Conor Hubble’s delivery was flapped away by the Jockeys’ number-one and Ernest Okoh couldn’t produce an effort on target with the rebound. Shortly after on the eighteenth minute, the Gulls found themselves one-nil down following a counter-attack, Newmarket’s Palmer saw his cross strike the crossbar and bounce into the Canvey net. Around five minutes later, the Gulls had a chance to equalise when Charlie Panton made a darting run into the box and received the ball, however his attempt was well-blocked by the Jockeys’ defender.

Just over ten minutes later, the Gulls were again searching for an equaliser when Conor Hubble’s corner found Michael Finneran in the area, however he couldn’t direct his first-time volley the right- side of the post to put it into the bottom corner, and it struck the fence behind the goal. Four minutes later Michael Finneran was knocking on the door again when his header found the back-post from another Conor Hubble corner. Just before half-time the Gulls finally found a breakthrough to level the affair, captain Elliott Ronto found the target from six-yards out after Jack Cawley’s long-throw was nodded on by Ross Wall for Ronto to hit a looping effort over the goalkeeper.

Half time: Canvey Island 1-1 Newmarket Town

The Referee blew his whistle to signal a start to the second forty-five, and it was Conor Hubble who got us underway, and it was a lively start for the Gulls, however there were no real opportunities of note. On the hour mark, Kevin Horlock made his first two changes, when he opted to bring on Evans Kouassi and Rowan Balestreri-McDaid for Conor Hubble and Ernest Okoh.

Inside the final twenty minutes Freddie Price was introduced into the action for Michael Bareck and ten minutes later Omar Rowe came on to replaced Charlie Panton for our last change of the afternoon. With four minutes to go the Gulls earned themselves a free-kick just outside the box after Evans Kouassi was brought down, however the free-kick came to nothing as the visitors cleared away the danger. In the final minutes play was halted before Freddie Price could deliver a late corner as the was an emergency in the crowd, play soon resumed after the break and the corner-kick caused problems for the Jockeys as an effort was well-saved by the goalkeeper, denying the Gulls a late winner to book a place in the next round. We now travel to Newmarket Town on Tuesday evening for a replay as neither side could find a winner, we hope to see you all there, Canvey fans.

Full-time: Canvey Island 1-1 Newmarket Town