Canvey Island 0-2 Bury Town
Gulls Suffer First Defeat
Canvey Island’s 100% start to the 2019/20 season came to an end at Park Lane on Saturday, losing 2-0 to Ben Chenery’s Bury Town.
The Gulls hit the woodwork twice and went close on several other occasions, while the visitors scored through a wonder strike and spot of good fortune to take the three points back to Suffolk.
Manager Mark Bentley made one change from the side that beat Hullbridge Sports on Bank Holiday Monday, replacing centre back Michael Finneran who was suffering from a dead leg with Alex Stephenson who returned from the same injury.
Canvey had two golden chanced to open the scoring in the early stages of the match.
On seven minutes a defensive mix-up presented Jason Hallett with the chance to run through on goal one-on-one with goalkeeper Daniel Barden. However, the keeper did extremely well to keep Hallett’s shot out to spare the blushes of his teammates.
Josh Hutchinson then did well to get past a defender and shoot two minutes later, but his low shot struck the base of the post.
Having gone close with a header from a corner two minutes earlier, Bury Town opened the scoring on 38 minutes in spectacular circumstances. Left back Will Gardner pulled the trigger from over 20 yards out, unleashing an unstoppable shot which flew into the top corner giving Lamar Johnson in the Canvey goal no chance.
The Gulls should have equalised four minutes later when George Purcell sent over a superb cross into the area, but Rob Lacey steered his header wide of the target.
Canvey struck the frame of the goal for the second time ten minutes into the second half from a Josh Hutchinson corner. Central defender Alex Stephenson got up with to thump a header towards goal which rattled the post.
There were calls for a penalty to the home side on 77 minutes when Jason Hallett’s shirt appeared to be pulled by a defender inside the area. To his credit, Hallett still managed to get a header on target which was tipped over.
Tobi Joseph missed the target with a header from a Sammy Knott free kick on 80 minutes, and soon afterwards goalkeeper Daniel Barden produced a fine save to deny George Purcell from long range.
Bury Town got their reward for weathering the storm with four minutes remaining when they doubled their advantage and sealed victory. A long ball forwards was misjudged by defender Elliott Warren and goalkeeper Lamar Johnson, presenting the ball to substitute Cruise Nyadzayo to score with the simplest of finishes.
Canvey are back in action on Tuesday night when Hullbridge Sports are the visitors in the Velocity Trophy, kick off at 19:45.