Canvey Island comfortably dispatched visitors Hendon to rack up their fourth league win on the bounce this afternoon. Canvey were assisted by the fact that Hendon made the game hard work for themselves by having three players sent off.

The windy conditions made balls above head height difficult as Daniel Sintim found out on 4 minutes when his sliced clearance was gathered in the wind, travelled behind him and had to be plucked out of the air on the goal line by Berkely Laurencin.

It was Hendon who took the lead on 15 minutes from the penalty spot. John Easterford was judged to have fouled Gregory Ngoyi when clearing a ball up field despite Easterford taking an arm to the face and requiring treatment. As Easterford left the field to receive treatment Jamie Busby stepped up and sent his spot-kick to Russell’s left and into the back of the net.

If the penalty was questionable then an off the ball incident involving Danny Heale and Jonathan Coke on 19 minutes was downright cheating. Heale rose to lay a ball off to Ashley Dumas and with everyone following the direction of the ball a cry came from Coke who was rolling around on the floor clutching his face. The Referee halted play and spoke to his assistant with the result being a yellow card for Heale.

Tension was running at maximum when Coke brought down Alex Rhodes out on the wing on 32 minutes. Matt Game’s free-kick was floated over towards the far post where John Easterford almost connected with the ball but for Daniel Sintim hauling him to the ground. As the last man Sintim was shown a straight red card and Robbie King added another notch on his penalty tally sending Laurencin the wrong way.

Three minutes later and another Matt Game free-kick from a similar position was drilled low into the near post where Laurencin fumbled the ball and pushed it back out into the path of Kevin Dobinson. Dobinson fired goal-wards but his effort went the wrong side of the post from 10 yards.

Towards the end of the half Hendon’s intentions were clear, to prevent Canvey playing football with niggling fouls and break up play. On 38 minutes Kevin Maclaren was booked and three minutes later some handbags between Frank Everett and Scott Cousins resulted in each of them being cautioned before the interval.

H/T: Canvey Island 1 - 1 Hendon

Hendon made a double substitution at half-time with Aaron Morgan replacing Gregory Ngoyi and Eddie Munnelly replacing Lubomir Guentchev.

Kevin Dobinson was harshly booked on 52 minutes with the Referee signalling that he had stamped on his counterpart before Jay Curran gave Canvey the lead on 56 minutes.

Alex Rhodes made a direct run down the left absolutely skinning Coke for pace and provided a pin-point accurate cross that beat Michael Peacock at the near post and fell perfectly to the feet of Curran who prodded the ball past Laurencin from four yards.

From the restart Kevin Maclaren chopped down Frank Everett and was subsequently shown his second yellow of the game, thus reducing Hendon down to nine men.

A rare effort on goal from Belal Aite-Quakrim, who was easily Hendon’s best player but received no service throughout was well wide of James Russell’s goal just before the hour.

Again Hendon’s tactics were to disrupt play and on 63 minutes Casey Maclaren was shown a yellow card for bundling over John Easterford. Two minutes later and Alex Rhodes was booked for a high foot when challenging Aaron Morgan for a loose ball. Morgan lowered his head to meet the ball, even though Rhodes was clearly first to the ball and his foot was already well placed to make the pass.

Michael Peacock prevented the score line from increasing on 68 minutes when he cleared Alex Rhodes’s right footed effort off the line after he connected with Frank Everett’s low cross from the right side of the penalty area. The weak clearance fell to Rob King on the edge of the penalty area but he drilled his effort narrowly over the crossbar.

On 71 minutes Jay Curran was booked for diving after being shoved from behind whilst receiving a cross from Rhodes but three minutes later when Curran was through on goal again, despite getting his shot away he was trampled by Michael Peacock. Peacock was shown a straight red card and joined his two team mates for the early bath. Danny Heale curled the resulting free-kick around the Hendon wall and past Laurencin at his near post to increase Canvey’s lead and set up a final fifteen minutes of exhibition football.

Before the restart Jay Curran was replaced by Leon Gordon making his first appearance of the season after several months out recovering from a broken foot. Gordon’s impact was immediate as he showed no signs of rustiness and troubled what little backline Hendon had left on the field.

Aite-Quakrim was replaced by James Burgess with 12 minutes remaining ending any effort of Hendon attempting to get something from the game.

Laurencin had to be at full stretch to tip Kevin Dobinson’s ranged effort around the post on 82 minutes. Before the corner was taken by Rhodes, Dobinson and Danny Heale were replaced by Hussein Isa and Ellis Skidmore.

Isa, playing on the right wing, made a great run down the right on 84 minutes before cutting back inside and unleashing an effort from the edge of the penalty area that fizzed narrowly past the far post. Canvey were now passing the ball freely and whilst not pounding Hendon with chance after chance on goal, the ball was simply sprayed about amongst the players accompanied with cheers from the Yellow Army.

Ellis Skidmore had his first league goal for the club arguably ruled out for offside on 86 minutes when he connected with Alex Rhodes’ low cross at the near post to poke the ball past Laurencin. As soon as Skidmore connected with the ball though the assistant rose his flag although when the pass was played by Rhodes, Skidmore appeared level with his marker.

A minute later and Leon Gordon beat his man down the right and provided a cross to the far-post where Alex Rhodes awaited. Rhodes didn’t connect cleanly with the ball though and his right-footed effort went over the bar from eight yards.

Arguably the best goal of the game came in the first minute of stoppage time. Ashley Dumas lofted a beautiful cross-field pass into the path of Hussein Isa, making a run down the right. Isa couldn’t find and opening to get his cross in so instead laid the ball back to Leon Gordon behind him standing on the edge of the penalty area. Gordon unleashed an effort towards the far-side of the goal that beat the ‘Keeper and landed inside the side netting to give Canvey their fourth of the game and seal their victory.

The Referee brought the afternoon’s thrilling proceedings to an end shortly after the restart and Canvey will look to take this winning momentum into Tuesday night’s home fixture against Croydon Athletic.

F/T: Canvey Island 4 - 1 Hendon