The afternoon's trip to Tilbury finished, Tilbury 2-2 Canvey Island. Attendance: 412.

This was an entertaining game and both sides had opportunities to steal all three points.

On reflection, a point was a fair result. We would like to thank Tilbury for an entertaining game, and we look forward to welcoming them to Park Lane in December.

Match report by David Powell

Canvey Island continued their unbeaten start to the season with a 2-2 draw against Tilbury at Chadfields.

In a game that could have gone either way, an injury hit Canvey side found themselves a goal down before leading 2-1 but were pegged back by a superb strike from Lewis Smith.

With Jey Siva, Conor Hubble and Billy Knott out with injury, Canvey were down to the bare bones.

They made a slow start to the game and could have been behind in the first 15 minutes of the match.

After Tilbury had fired narrowly wide of the target on 16 minutes, Ola Ogunwamide broke clear but was denied by Bobby Mason who spread himself well to save.

Moments later, Ogunwamide broke clear down the right and as Mason came out to challenge him, the goalkeeper caught the winger with an attempted challenge to concede a penalty.

Brian Moses stepped up but skied his penalty high over the crossbar much to Canvey’s relief.

This near miss seemed to galvanise Canvey and a few minutes later Jamie Salmon was just off target with a 25 yard shot.

A mistake in the Tilbury rearguard then allowed Tobi Tinubu to break clear but he hesitated as he attempted to take the ball round Dockers’ keeper Harry Girling who was able to get a touch on the ball to deny the winger. Harrison Chatting fed a pass into Tinubu who put the ball into the net but he was in an offside position.

A couple of flurries in the Canvey penalty area were dealt with well by the visitors’ defence before Tinubu fired wide from 20 yards as the half drew to a close.

Canvey started the second half sluggishly and found themselves a goal down on 53 minutes. Elijay Worrell picked the ball up on the left around 25 yards from goal and hit a skidding low shot that Mason got down to but couldn’t keep out.

Like the penalty, the goal was a wake up call for Canvey and they enjoyed their best spell of the game for the next 15 minutes.

Some good play by Tinubu set up a chance for Matt Price but as he was about to shoot, an excellent tackle from a Tilbury defender prevented him getting a shot off.

Tinubu then picked out Price with a fine left wing cross on 62 minutes but his header was kept out well by Girling.

This was a brief let off for the hosts as moments later a fine through pass found Price in space and he finished superbly past Girling.

Six minutes later Gulls were in front after a period of pressure. Chatting’s right corner picked out Elliott Ronto at the far post and the Australian midfielder climbed above his marker to head home.

Gulls though were unable to keep the lead for long and on 74 minutes, Lewis Smith was given too much space from a short corner to cut in from the left and send a curling shot from the edge of the penalty area past Mason.

The last 15 minutes saw both sides push forward in search of a winner. Canvey had to survive a number of dangerous moments from Tilbury but could have won the game on 85 minutes.

Ben Sampayo did brilliantly to drive in from the right and fire a ball across goal that just eluded the onrushing Tinubu.

Ogunwamide then fired across goal after a dangerous run down the right as the game approached injury time.

Both sides though had to settle for a draw in front of an impressive Bank Holiday Monday crowd of 412.

Canvey are next in action on Saturday when they travel to Bedford Town in the 1st Qualifying Round of the FA Cup.

By David Powell