Canvey Island resumed their League duties this evening hosting one of the early season title favourites, Lowestoft Town at the Brockwell Stadium. Canvey fielded a stronger line-up than that which started against Heybridge Swifts last weekend with the likes of Frank Everett, Matt Game, Alex Rhodes and Jay Curran returning to the starting eleven as Andrew West, Steve Ward and Danny Kerrigan took their places on the bench alongside strikers Jason Hallett and Ellis Skidmore.

Lowestoft, fielding former Gull Stuart Ainsley in the heart of their midfield set out their stall to defend from the off on a very hard and frost coated pitch and only looked threatening on the counter-attack during the opening period of the game.

One such counter on 13 minutes allowed Scott Mitchell to bomb down Canvey’s left, before crossing to Aaron Forbes who forced a strong save from James Russell.

It was the same again on 17 minutes as Lowestoft moved the ball from a throw in deep in their own half across the pitch with speed, which resulted in Forbes breaking clear to square the ball across the face of goal to the feet of on-rushing Curtis Haynes-Brown, but the full-back shockingly poked the ball wide of the near post.

Lowestoft custodian, Andrew Reynolds was at full-stretch to tip Kevin Dobinson’s 25 yard free-kick onto the post on 22 minutes, with the ball bouncing clear from danger.

On 28 minutes Reynolds failed to cleanly clear a Canvey corner and the ball was chased down by Robbie King out wide on Canvey’s right where he was awarded a free-kick. The free-kick was delivered to the far post where Chris Moore headed the ball down into the penalty area, but the loose ball was cleared before any Canvey attacker could make the finish.

Four minutes later and Danny Heale laid off a lovely ball to the head of Jay Curran, Curran set the ball for Robbie King, but King mistimed his first shot. King recovered well though to direct an effort down low to Reynolds’ right, which the ‘Keeper had to dive to secure safely.

Canvey were denied an exceptionally strong penalty claim on 34 minutes when a heavy ball in from the right travelled across the penalty area where it was controlled by Andrew Cave-Brown’s arm to prevent the ball leaving play for a corner. Both the Referee and his Assistant missed the foul despite heavy protesting from players and spectators alike.

Danny Heale headed the ball onto the post from Ashley Dumas’ pin-point cross with seven minutes to go till the interval. Heale rose unchallenged from fifteen yards and Reynolds could only stand and watch the ball cannon back off the woodwork and out for a goal-kick.

In first-half stoppage time the Referee’s inconsistency shone through when he booked Jay Curran for kicking the ball into the net after the whistle had already sounded. This despite the Referee not showing a card to Cave-Brown earlier after he had similarly kicked the ball across the pitch in frustration at the Referee awarding the Gulls a throw-in.

Matt Game was equally guilty of missing what appeared to be a simple scoring opportunity in the last move of the half. A well worked ball down Canvey’s right saw Robbie King cross accurately from deep onto the head of Danny Heale. Heale headed the ball down into the path of Game, but Game miraculously put the ball wide from six yards and was cautioned in the aftermath.

H/T: Canvey Island 0 - 0 Lowestoft Town

The Referee equalised a poor decision for Canvey with a poor decision for Lowestoft on 50 minutes when Aaron Forbes through on goal was upended in Canvey’s penalty area by John Easterford. In what looked like a stone-wall penalty to nearly everyone in the ground, they were surprised to see the Referee wave his hands and continue play.

The second half was played at a much slower tempo than the first and Canvey albeit dominating possession failed to string enough passes together to work the ball deep enough into Lowestoft’s half to work up a decent attacking move. The positive to come from this was that when Canvey did lose possession it was quickly regained in midfield through the tough, no nonsense tackling from Matt Game and Kevin Dobinson.

The Gulls kept Lowestoft on the back foot, but the Suffolk visitors’ game plan of coming to Essex not to lose held firm as they often defended with their central midfield players dropping behind the ball.

Sam Gaughran played a big part in this, often being in the right place at the right time, which may have been un-easy viewing but it worked to good effect, proven by the fact that Canvey’s next effort on target didn’t come until the 76^th minute.

Before this though, Aaron Forbes rose freely from a Lowestoft left-hand corner on 70 minutes, but directed his header clearly over the bar. Four minutes later and Forbes was booked for dissent, something that had been a long time coming as he and Gaughran had berated the Referee all game.

When Canvey did break Lowestoft’s ranks they did so in style. A great counter attack down the left through Alex Rhodes saw him sprint down the wing and outpace his marker before squaring the ball to Jay Curran who was running centrally into the Lowestoft penalty box. Curran attempted to place his shot in the corner of the goal, but Reynolds had already moved off his line and did well to close the space between Curran and himself resulting in Reynolds blocking Curran’s effort. Curran chased down the loose ball and delivered a cross of his own from the right that was intercepted and bounced out of play; however the Referee bizarrely awarded a goal-kick deeming that Matt Game was the Canvey player who last touched the ball.

That was Canvey’s last effort on goal though as their forward line were clearly starting to flag and some much warranted fresh legs was needed to maintain any barrage on Reynolds’ goal. The only change came on 83 minutes though as Lowestoft replaced Scott Mitchell with James Forsham.

The final whistle sounded as the game petered out and both sides could stake a claim on the night being two points dropped for their teams.

This game was a much needed improvement on the previous weekend’s performance though and fans are hopeful this kick-starts a run of form for the Gulls, particularly at a time where rivals Concord Rangers and Billericay Town make-up two of their next four fixtures as we head into the New Year.

F/T: Canvey Island 0 - 0 Lowestoft Town