Match Report by David Powell

Canvey Island went down to a 2-0 defeat away at Horsham as they hit the halfway point of the season.

On a cold, December afternoon in front of a large crowd of over 700, the hosts were clearly not in the Christmas spirit of gifting as they left the Gulls empty handed courtesy of a goal in each half.

Despite dominating large swaves of the first half and missing a penalty, it just seemed like one of those afternoon's for Canvey whereas the hosts were able to convert the chances that fell their way.

Canvey gave a first start to new signing to Ashley Nzala after Evans Kouassi picked up an injury in the pre match warm up. Sam Mvemba and Charlie Edwards also returned to the squad after missing the game in midweek.

The Gulls started brightly, controlling much of the play with some excellent football in the midfield. Elliott Ronto made the first of the Canvey chances as he forced Taylor Seymour into a good reaction save with a header from a corner on 6 minutes.

On 13 minutes, Connor Hubble’s corner caused chaos in the six-yard box, with Seymour doing well to keep out Rob Girdlestone’s flick towards goal and then save the follow up from Bradley Sach.

After the frantic start, Horsham began to settle and their luck seemed to come in on 33 minutes as they won a penalty on 33 minutes, the referee adjudging Charlie Hester-Cook to have been brought down down in the area.

Tom Kavanagh stepped up but saw his penalty strike the crossbar and rebound to safety.

It was only a short lived reprieve for the Gulls however as the hosts continued to press. A good passing move found the threatening Hester-Cook in space in the area. He made no mistake fired home to give his side the lead.

Almost immediately, Canvey won a penalty after Joe Paxman was bundled over in the penalty area. Hubble stepped up but, like the Horsham penalty not long before, he also fired too high, clearly Seymour's crossbar as the score remained 1-0.

Canvey kept the squeeze on the hosts for the rest of the half as they pushed for an equaliser. They nearly found it when Sach muscled his way past a defender and broke into the penalty area. He fired in a powerful strike on target, but Seymour did brilliantly to turn it over the crossbar.

With the last action of the half, Canvey nearly claimed a bizarre equaliser when Seymour punched away Hubble’s free kick, but his clearance struck a Canvey player in waiting, with the ball cannoning towards goal and off the crossbar with the goalkeeper beaten.

The second half was a far mkre frustrating affair, with Canvey probing for an equaliser but unable to break down a stubborn home defence.

Horsham crafted the first real chance of the half however as Hester-Cook again did well to break through the Canvey defence, a mazy run on 59 minutes squaring him for goal, but Bobby Mason was out well to make a good reaction save.

Canvey continued to thraten when they could, though chances were more at a premium than they'd have liked.
From a Hubble corner, Elliott Johnson headed the ball across goal to Jamie Salmon who could only poke the ball over the crossbar from close range.

Horsham sealed their win with 8 minutes to go, when the Canvey defence misjudged a long ball forward and Jack Mazzone pounced on the loose ball to fire a fierce strike past Mason.

Nzala nearly grabbed a consolation for Canvey in the closing minutes of the game as he broke through the hosts backline, but his low strike from the edge of the penalty area took a deflection and zipped agonisingly wide of the post.

Canvey will now look to bounce back on Boxing Day, when they host Bowers & Pitsea in a local derby at the Moviestarr Stadium.