Match Report by David Powell
Photo Credit - Vicki Scott

Canvey Island suffered their first defeat in six games as they fell 2-1 to Billericay Town at The Moviestarr Stadium.

In front of a season best crowd of 677, the Gulls were second best against their local rivals, allowing them to complete a league double and put a dent in their playoff aspirations.

Recent form would have suggested that Canvey would have had one up on their rivals going into the game, but the nature of derby matches is never simple, and so it proved with the match.

Canvey did start brightly, with Evans Kouassi hitting the crossbar after just three minutes following a good, curling effort from the edge of the area.

They couldn't keep the pressure on their opponents however and allowed them to settle, with Kareem Isiaka testing Bobby Mason with an angled shot.
The Gulls responded, and good play on the right saw Bradley Sach release Tobi Tinubu into space, but his low shot was parried to safety by Harry Seaden.

The visitors continued to threaten on the break and their incisve play saw them take the lead on 33 minutes. A scramble in the penalty area saw the Gulls defence unable to properly clear their lines, the ball falling kindly to Anderson Pinto, who fired a rocketed shot past Mason.

The half continued in a back and forth nature, though neither side wre able to capitalise in fruther chances. Kouassi had a drilled effort cleared away from the line, before Isiaka headed wide from a free kick just before the referee blew for time.

The goal in the first half got the visitors tails up, as they battled harder to end their wretched run of form.

A powerful strike from Bradley Stevenson crashed off of the post, before Alfie Cerulli saw his header saved well by Mason.

The Gulls tried pushing forward but found their passing amiss as they failed to test Seaden in the visiting goal. That indecisiveness allowed the visitors to break for their second, a quick move down the right finding Isakia in space to drill a low shot home to seal the game for the visitors.

Canvey's afternoon only got worse, with a head injury to Charlie Edwards needing a long stoppage, as he was ultimately brought off for Joe Paxman. Isiaka could have put gloss on the scorline shortly after the restart, but his curling effort saw Mason do well to push the ball away.

Nine minutes of stoppage time was given following the earlier injury to Edwards, and this allowed Canvey to push forward with more purpose than they'd previously displayed in the half. Their efforts merited them a goal early in stoppage time.

Subsitute Ashley Nzala began to cause Billericay problems on the flank. One of his balls in from the right was eventually met by a superb volley from Connor Hubble, that gave Seaden no chance of saving. Game on, but with little time remaining

Billericay looked visibly rattled as the chances began to fall in quick concession for the Gulls. Nzala did well again to put through Tinubu, but Seaden did well to smother the ball before he could get his shot away. They then won a free kick around 25 yards from goal that. Hubble stepped up and delivered a good ball into the face of goal but it couldn't be met by any of the strikers.

Time was against the Gulls by this point though and the referee's whistle sounded soon after to condemn the Gulls to defeat.
With results around them going against them, they'll need to show resolve to bounce back in the week, with a trip to Haringey Borough up next.