Tilbury 3-0 Canvey Island

On Saturday we suffered our third successive Bostik North defeat, going down 3-0 away to Tilbury.

It was last season's Canvey strike force of Mitchell Gilbey and George Sykes who did the damage, with Gilbey scoring and Sykes earning a penalty for his new employers.

Manager Mark Bentley gave debuts to three players; right back Adetayo Osifuwa, midfielder Adeyinka Cole and central defender Zack Littlejohn, the latter signing before the match on a dual registration from Concord Rangers.

The Dockers took the lead on 27 minutes when goalkeeper Harry Palmer brought Sykes down inside the box. Former-East Thurrock United forward Lewis Smith stepped up and scored from the spot.

It was 2-0 shortly afterwards when the Canvey defence failed to deal with a cross and Mitchell Gilbey was on hand to score from close range.

It took until the stroke of half time before Canvey's first decent chance when Adam Vyse played Kane Gilbert through, but his lobbed effort when narrowly over the crossbar.

George Sykes should have wrapped things up two minutes into the second half when a long ball sent the striker through on goal, but he scuffed his shot which dribbled wide of the post.

It was game over with 20 minutes remaining when another cross caused havoc inside the Canvey penalty area allowing Thomas Barton to score a simple tap in.

Both teams had chances to add to the scoring, but Lewis Smith's shot was cleared off the line for the hosts before substitute Martin Tuohy had a header saved by goalkeeper Rhys Madden.