Canvey Island 2-0 Bury Town
Comfortable Win Against Chenery's Blues
Canvey Island returned to winning ways with a solid 2-0 win against Bury Town at The Frost Hire Stadium on Saturday.
This was only Canvey’s fourth ever win against the Suffolk side, with the familiar face of Ben Chenery once again in the opposition dugout.
Manager Danny Heale made two changes from the side that were beaten by Bowers & Pitsea on Tuesday night. In came midfielders Ryan Melaugh and Josh Hutchinson, with Sam Collins and Martin Tuohy the men to make way.
The first chance of the match came in the seventh minute when Bury Town were awarded a free kick in a central position 25 yards from goal. Jake Chambers-Shaw stepped up and hit a decent effort a couple of yards over the crossbar.
Canvey opened the scoring after only eight minutes when Jordan Cox sent over an excellent cross from the right wing which Frankie Merrifield was on hand to head home from inside the six yard box.
They came close to a second on 19 minutes when a cross from the left was met by a fine header from Jordan Cox, rising high but hitting the top of the post. Cox had another header a minute later which landed on the roof of the net from a corner.
On the half hour mark a Canvey corner was half cleared by the Bury defence but only as far as Ryan Melaugh on the right wing. Melaugh headed infield and threaded a pass through for Frankie Merrifield on the edge of the area, but his low shot was straight at goalkeeper Luis Tibbles who saved.
On 57 minutes a positive run infield from the right by Jake Jolliffe saw him receive possession once again from Frankie Merrifield. Jolliffe pulled the trigger from 20 yards which Luis Tibbles saved diving low to his right.
Bury’s two best chances of the match came in quick succession and both fell to substitute Tanner Call. On 71 minutes a ball in from the left landed at the feet of Call in space inside the area. Call turned to shoot from eight yards but was denied thanks to a fantastic tackle from George Allen.
Four minutes later a through ball released Call in behind the Canvey defence. Harry Palmer came off his line and smothered the shot 12 yards out, but Call had the presence of mind to pick himself up and head the rebound goalwards. However, Canvey’s man of the match Jake Jolliffe was aware of the danger and dropped back into the six yard box to head behind for a corner.
Canvey won the game five minutes later when Mitchell Gilbey forced Luis Tibbles into work with a low shot from the left. Tibbles couldn’t hold the ball and pushed it out into the middle of the penalty area where Marlon Agyakwa was on hand to smash a shot home via the underside of the crossbar, only two minutes after coming on as a substitute.
Photo: KJA Sports Images