Match Report by David Powell

Canvey Island kept their hopes of winning the Isthmian Premier title alive with a 3-1 win over Folkestone Invicta at Cheriton Road.

Despite Bishop's Stortford's win on Saturday, the Gulls can take the battle for the table to the final day should they beat Aveley on Tuesday evening. The win on Saturday, coupled with the Millers defeat against Horsham, all but guarantees Canvey a home playoff semi final.

They started the game with the kind of confidence that has taken them up the table, and two goals in the first 20 minutes gave them a commanding lead.

First, Evans Kouassi broke through on the left and fed an excellent pass to Luca Albon, who calmy finished past home keeper Joe Coleman to open the scoring.
They made it 2-0 just eight minutes later. Kouassi once again found space in the channels, latching on to Jamie Salmon's pass to fire home a powerful strike into the roof of the net for his 23rd goal of the season.

This woke the hosts up and they sought to improve after a slow start, asking a few questions of Bobby Mason in the Canvey goal.
They had the chance to reduce the arrears on 27 minutes. Ibrahim Olutade was fouled in the area, the refferee not hesitating in pointing to the spot. The resulting spot kick from Ira Jackson was saved well by Mason, just got down low to his right.

Folkestone did bring the score back to 2-1 though shortly before half time. Josh Vincent headed home from close range after a free kick the Gulls had protested being awarded.

Into the second half and Canvey didn't let the late goal back phase them as they started brightly. Jamie Salmon fired in a long range shot that Joe Coleman had to turn away for a corner on 56 minutes.

From the set piece, Conor Hubble's ball in dropped into the box and fell to Elliott Ronto, whose shot was blocked. The loose ball could only ricochet to Bradley Sach however, who swept home from close range to restore the Gulls two goal cushion.

The hosts looked to once again work their way back into the match and made a few chances to try and keep the game alive. First, Vincent saw a strong header come back off the crossbar, before Bobby Mason was called into action once again, producing a superb double save to deny both Vincent and Ian Draycott.

Sach could have grabbed Canvey's fouth on 89 minutes with a powerful header, but Coleman was on hand to make an excellent reaction save to keep his effort out.

The full time whistle sounded shortly after though, capping off their adventures on the road this season and much to the delight of the travelling Yellow Army. The win takes Canvey to the 80 point mark going into the final two games of a fantastic first season back in the Isthmian Premier. All attention turns to two massive games at home now, with Aveley first two arrive at the Moviestarr Stadium on Tuesday.