Match report by David Powell

Canvey Island suffered their first loss of the season going down to a 1-0 defeat against Maldon & Tiptree at Park Lane.

On a wet and windy evening in front of an impressive crowd of 313, Gulls were edged out by a Maldon side who have not lost an away match in 18 months and before March’s COVID lockdown ended the season were runaway leaders of the Isthmian North.

Maldon have been much changed since then and started brightly creating the first opportunity of the game on 11 minutes.

Makhosini Ryan-Khanye played a great pass to Hamza Kaid marauding down the left and he drove a shot across goal and wide.

Canvey settled and for much of the half were the better team. After a corner had been cleared, Evans Kouassi played a cross in from the right and Mason Hall in for the injured Rob Girdlestone headed narrowly over the crossbar.

On 20 minutes some great persistence by Kouassi saw him keep hold of the ball despite the attentions of several defenders and find Tom Blackwell whose cross from the right was headed over by Tobi Joseph under pressure from Maldon keeper Ben McNamara.

Conor Hubble fired just wide from 25 yards on 35 minutes before Maldon finished the half strongly creating a couple of chances.

First, a cross from Sam Coombes saw Scott Kemp get an effort in on goal at the near post but Bobby Mason did brilliantly to get a hand to the ball and turn it on to the post.

On the stroke of half time, former Canvey striker Adam Vyse tested Mason with a low driven free-kick from 25 yards that skidded towards goal on a wet surface and forced Mason into a parried save with the ball being cleared.

At the start of the second half, Canvey found it difficult to create any attacking fluency with Maldon working hard to close them down and stop Evans Kouassi creating anything on the wings. As a result, Joseph was an isolated figure up front and Maldon started to boss possession.

They took the lead on 59 minutes with Vyse coming back to haunt his old club. From 25 yards, the striker curled a superb free-kick around the defensive wall and into the bottom corner of the net.

Worse was to follow on 68 minutes when Elliott Ronto who had already been shown a yellow card received a second yellow then a red for a late tackle.

Canvey were up against it now, but to their credit, the ten men reacted well and the introduction of Louis Hunt and Rob Lacey gave Canvey some attacking impetus.

Hunt’s height caused problems for the Maldon rearguard and after having contained him quite well for much of the game, Kouassi came alive in the last ten minutes with several positive runs down the left.

Canvey had a shout for handball in the penalty area turned down as a corner was scrambled away and Hubble tested McNamara with a drilled shot that the keeper held well.

Maldon were hanging on a little as Kouassi twice put in teasing crosses that were hacked clear. In the last action of the game, Kouassi again crossed and the ball reached Hunt at the far post who couldn’t quite get the ball under control and fired over from the edge of the penalty area.

The whistle blew seconds later to keep Maldon’s long unbeaten away run intact. Gulls will seek to bounce back on Saturday when they travel to Brentwood Town.