Review of the season.

[YELLOW]

Just for your interest, I've posted my full review of the season (a shorter version will appear in the first programme of next season.

It was going to be put on the official website but unfortunately Wardy has beat me to that job!! <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

 

It's a bit long but I hope you find it interesting reading!

 

 

It’s very difficult to find the words to sum up what has been Canvey Island FC’s greatest season in their 78 year history.

It’s been an emotional roller-coaster with so many highs and a couple of lows and from next season, we will become a regular fixture on the Saturday evening results service as we compete in the Nationwide Conference for the first time in our history.

 

Unfortunately it was not quite a glorious end to the season as we failed to add the FA Trophy to the Ryman League Championship we had won several weeks earlier.

Despite being overwhelming favourites in the final at Villa Park against a Hednesford side who had finished in the bottom four of the Doc Martens Premier and thus missing out on a place in Conference North, it was the Midlands side who ran out 3-2 winners. The match was a dramatic and exhilarating contest that put this year’s FA Cup final to shame.

 

After being a goal down at half time a quick fire double from Lee Boylan (who surely will be claiming the second goal) gave us renewed hope. Hednesford though battled for the entire 90 minutes and there seemed to be something missing from our play, that usual spark of invention that has illuminated the season. Several of our players seemed off colour and it soon became apparent Hednesford were a better side than their lowly league position suggested. A sublime free kick and then a cracking shot four minutes from time ended Canvey’s dream of a double. As the Yellow Army stood in stunned silence, the majority of them in the Holte End, the disappointment of losing in such dramatic consequences was soon replaced by a feeling that this had been a great season and more exciting times were just around the corner.

 

Let’s go back to the beginning though and start our review back in August.

 

We started the season full of optimism that this would finally be the year that we would win the league. After a strong end to the previous season, the management decided to make very few changes to the squad that gelled so well in the closing months of the season. Dave Theobald, Neil Midgley and most notably former Gillingham midfielder Ty Gooden arrived to bolster an already talented squad.

 

Canvey though made their usual lacklustre start to the season. The opening three games were far from convincing with a win, a draw and a bad display in losing to Bishops’ Stortford. This was a far better start though than the previous season in which we lost four of our opening six games. Gradually though the team began to hit form. Four goal demolitions of St Albans and Braintree were a taste of things to come and after a 1-0 defeat away to bogey side Hendon on September 6th, we went 27 league games unbeaten winning 23 of them.

In that time Lee Boylan carried on his impressive goal scoring form. He was eventually to finish up with 57 goals for the season.

 

It was during October and November that the team hit its’ most impressive form. In a 4 game spell, Canvey hit 4 past Aylesbury, Bedford and Kettering and put 6 past Kingstonian with Neil Gregory scoring a hat-trick. It was after the Bedford game on October 21st that Canvey took top spot off surprise leaders Carshalton. We were to stay there for the remainder of the season.

 

Meanwhile the FA Cup was capturing our attention at this time. After an emphatic 6-1 win over Uxbridge in the second qualifying round, Canvey became something of the comeback kings of the competition. In the third qualifying round we were 3-0 down to Dover with just thirty minutes to go but in a truly astonishing finale, a Jeff Minton hattrick and a Boylan penalty gave us a 4-3 win against all the odds. At one stage we were 3-1 down with ten minutes to go!

The final qualifying round saw yet more drama as we came back from a goal down to beat lowly Mangotsfield in a match many of the Yellow Army will wish to forget!

 

So for the third year out of four we had made the 1st round proper of the FA Cup and the draw couldn’t have been bigger, away to fierce local rivals Southend United. There was an old score to settle from three years before when Southend triumphed 2-1 on a mud heap of a Roots Hall pitch. Unfortunately I missed the first match at Roots Hall as I was on holiday in Barcelona for a week. Regular text messages came through to my phone as I wandered along Barcelona seafront wearing my Canvey shirt and my thoughts totally fixed on the events at Roots Hall. The locals were awakened from their siesta as I greeted Mark Gower’s 90 second opener with derision and then minutes later as Ben Chenery’s headed equaliser lead to loud cheers.

 

So the first game ended 1-1 but by all accounts we probably could have won. It was then on to Park Lane for the replay 10 days later in front of the Sky cameras and a 2500 plus crowd. Unfortunately despite taking the lead twice, two superb second half goals by Southend’s Jay Smith one of them crucially deep into injury time gave them a narrow 3-2 victory in an epic and entertaining game.

 

So the dream was cruelly snatched away from us but we had little time to dwell on this failure as a few days later we had a massive match away to title rivals Hornchurch. After making a slow start to the season, the Urchins had really started to put an impressive run together and with their excellent finances and professional playing squad, they seemed the team most likely to challenge us for the title in the New Year. Despite drawing 0-0 we dominated in appalling wet conditions and went off at the end to a standing ovation from both sets of supporters.

 

That result seemed to set the course of the season. Canvey went from strength to strength whilst Hornchurch failed to maintain any real consistency and form after this result eventually finishing in fifth. Many had said our meeting on the final day of the season at Park Lane would be a championship decider.

 

It had also become obvious that not only could Canvey play teams off the park, they had now found the ability to grind out results when they needed to. Neil Gregory’s goal in the 8th minute of stoppage time against Basingstoke gave us a valuable 2-1 win in early December when at one stage defeat had seemed likely.

 

By Christmas with rival teams such as Carshalton and Hornchurch losing their way and in form sides such as Hendon, Grays and Thurrock too far behind to challenge, Canvey were building up an impressive lead at the top. The team couldn’t stop winning as teams were brushed aside with the minimum of fuss.

 

By January the FA Trophy was in full swing. After beating Windsor the real fun and games started in the third round as Conference side Farnborough were thrashed 6-0 in an exhilarating display of attacking football that saw Boylan and Ollie Berquez both score hat-tricks.

In the following round we battled to a 2-0 victory over Stafford and then needed a replay before comfortably disposing of Unibond side Stalybridge Celtic 4-0 at Park Lane.

 

In the quarter-finals Maidenhead were comfortably beaten before we played Telford in the two legged semi finals. More of that to come later.

 

By March we were over 20 points clear at the top of the table. Teams such as Hendon, Hayes and Carshalton had all been beaten at the Lane to effectively end their challenge. It seemed a case of when rather than if.

 

We did endure a mini crisis during this time that caused mild panic amongst some supporters. After nearly losing at home to Grays, our 27 game unbeaten run eventually came to an end with defeat to Sutton United. This was followed up by a 2-1 loss to Hayes. Luckily normal service was quickly resumed and with no side being near enough to take advantage Canvey achieved the results they needed to take the title.

 

A 2-1 victory over Thurrock on Good Friday, confirmed us as Ryman Premier League Champions and with that promotion to the Conference with 7 games still left to play. Despite going through the motions over the remaining games that included embarrassing defeats to Billericay and St Albans we still achieved over 100 points and scored over a hundred goals. We lost just 6 league games all season.

 

Meanwhile going back to the Trophy we endured two epic encounters against financially stricken Telford. After drawing 0-0 away in the first leg, the second leg was a nerve-wracking game with the scores locked at 2-2 after extra time. Luckily Danny Potter proved to be the hero saving a penalty as we triumphed 4-2 on spot kicks to take our place in the final. Unfortunately as already mentioned we couldn’t quite achieve the double.

 

So what a season and the best is yet to come. Lee Boylan once again proved he is one of the best strikers in non league football scoring well over 50 goals. John Kennedy was thoroughly deserving of his player of the year award and has made the midfield ball winning position his own. Jeff Minton continues to get better and better whilst Danny Potter has proved to be one of the best goalkeepers at this level with some match winning performances. It’s difficult to single out individuals because the whole squad has contributed to such a fantastic season.

 

So what have been my overriding memories of the season good and bad? Low points were few and far between. The feeling of ‘here we go again’ when we lost to Bishops’ Stortford in the opening week of the season and the feeling of despair and shock at losing to Southend and Hednesford in the dying moments. Billericay spoiling our championship party on Easter Monday.

 

Great moments are too numerous to mention. Winning the league at Thurrock, the atmosphere at the Trophy final, Danny Potter’s penalty save against Telford, Minton’s goal against Southend in the cup, the feeling of exhilaration and unadulterated emotion at Jeff’s winner against Dover after being on the brink of exiting the FA Cup, Lee Boylan’s terrific hat-trick against Hornchurch on the final day after being 2-0 down, the atmosphere and constant singing at some away matches, Bedford, Mangotsfield and Hornchurch especially in the torrential rain spring to mind.

 

There’s many others that I don’t have time to mention and next season there’ll be many more as the likes of York, Exeter and Carlisle, teams we only dreamt of playing a few years ago will be competing with us on a regular basis.

 

Next season will be tough so expect a lot of highs and lows along the way. Whatever happens it promises to be a lot of fun.

 

Finally I would like to thank all the players, management and all the people behind the scenes who contributed to such a successful season.

 

We must not forget the supporters, The Yellow Army for their fantastic support home and away. I’ve already mentioned above the non-stop singing of some away games and if we could just do this at home on a regular basis then we should make Park Lane a formidable place for teams to come to. Hopefully with promotion to a new division this will increase attendances further and attract new supporters.

 

Have a good summer and see you next season for the Conference magical mystery tour!

 

By David Powell (Yellow Army 2003)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Skid]

Good of you to keep the results against the Urchins 'low profile'.

 

I thought that C.I. absolutely thrashed us in the appalling weather at 'The Stadium of Dreams'. How Danny Gay kept you from scoring I'll never know.......

 

But then I'll never know how we let you win that last (League) game of the season either....

 

Especially after our team had given us so much to gloat about with 20 minutes to go !!!

 

I also thought that you had a lot of balls singing your heart out surrounded by dozens of Urchin fans in the first half (I think that you have admitted to it on another posting) - I was just in front of you and have a great video clip of you singing "Canvey Reject" to our Ollie !!

[YELLOW]

Yep remember that mate. Luckily most of your fans were fine and enjoyed the banter.

[mala_D]

Quote:

Skid said:

I also thought that you had a lot of balls singing your heart out surrounded by dozens of Urchin fans in the first half

That's when he wasn't stuffing his face full of burger! <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Anyway, YA.....you had Lurchin, AU, and myself protecting ya!!! <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Good review mate!

[YELLOW]

I thought it was AU starting the trouble!!

[mala_D]

That was the second half! <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

 

Talking of which...haven't seen him much on the forum lately! Not in Alcatraz is he?