Essex Senior Cup Third Round:
Barking 1, Canvey Island 3
Canvey Island moved into the fourth round of the Essex Senior Cup after beating Essex Senior League high-flyers Barking FC, with a heroic performance from Gulls’ keeper Conor Gough.
Despite taking an early lead through Kieran English, the home side had little answer to strikes from Jay Curran, George Sykes, and Tony Stokes, as the visitors effectively ended the match as a contest before half time.
Barking rallied in the second half, but a superb display from Gough kept them at bay.
Barking have lost the last six of their competitive meetings with Canvey, and the last time the Blues had beaten the Gulls was in 2007 in a pre-season friendly.
Dominant
Yet if current form was anything to go by, Barking were the clear favourites. The hosts had annihilated Enfield 1893 5-1 last weekend, while Canvey lost to promotion rivals Bognor Regis 5-0.
Therefore it was little surprise when the home side started off in dominant fashion. In the opening ten minutes they created chance after chance.
Kieran English was facing his former club, and it didn’t take him long to make an impression.
After just three minutes, English broke free of a lacklustre Canvey defence to hit his shot just wide of the target. It was an early warning sign for the Gulls they failed to heed.
Shortly after, Joe Pearman curled a wonderful effort with his left foot from the edge of the box, beating Gough diving low to his right, only for the ball to go just the wrong side of the post.
Stung
After 10 minutes Barking made the pressure pay. Pearman broke down the right wing, and though his shot was saved by Gough, the keeper could only push the ball into the path of English who slotted it home from around the penalty spot.
The goal stung Canvey into action. Almost straight from the kick off, the ball was played out wide to the right and then into the box to find Curran, who was able to turn his defender and fire home into the top corner. Even though Barking keeper Michael Green got a leg to it, it wasn’t enough to prevent the equaliser.
Just a minute later, Canvey went in front, after Ozzy Adeniji chased down a loose ball and harried a Blues defender. The home side screamed for a foul but the referee was having none of it.
The ball sprang free for Canvey striker Sykes to thump a spectacular effort into the top right corner, out of reach of the scrambling Green. It was Sykes first goal for the Gulls since re-joining them after a month’s loan at Dartford.
After a blinding opening 20 minutes of football the game settled down, and the home side regained their composure and began to work their way back into the game.
On 35 minutes, the effort was almost rewarded. Some sublime one touch passing tore the Canvey defence apart in a matter of seconds, with Junior Appiah at the heart of the move. His pass found English who broke through a stunned Canvey defence and smashed his shot into the back of the net.
However a very late flag from the assistant ruled Appiah offside earlier in the move, sending the home fans into an uproar.
Eight minutes later, Canvey extended their lead from a scrappy set piece. Gulls captain Richard Halle, did well to knock the ball on from the corner into the path of Appiah who powered his header onto his own bar.
However Barking had failed to clear their lines, and the ball fell obligingly for Canvey striker Stokes who found the net from inside the six-yard box.
Ripped apart
Barking made a change at half time, bringing on Wale Odedoyin for Appiah, and eight minutes after the restart, the substitute found Pearman with a strong pass. Just as he was about to shoot, Gough came sprinting off his line to deny the striker a goal.
Gough was called into action again in the 57th minute, after Odedoyin ripped apart a sluggish Canvey defence with his pace. The Gulls keeper came racing off his line again to deny what would have been a sure goal for the Blues forward, with a strong sliding save.
Odedoyin looked to be Barking’s main hope as he was at the heart of every attack, and was wreaking havoc in the Canvey back four.
On 81 minutes Odedoyin broke free down the right wing, and fired a shot towards the Canvey goal only to be denied by a sensational save by Gough.
The duel between Odedoyin and Gough was thrilling, but it looked set to be one that the Canvey stopper would win as the clock ticked on, and Barking were running out of time.
Barking had the last chance of the night, from a corner in stoppage time. The ball was whipped in and found the head of Glen Golby, which was, almost inevitably, kept out by a superb fingertip save from Gough.
Match Details
Tuesday 10th November 2015
Essex Senior Cup Third Round
Attendance 83
Teams
Barking FC
Michael Green, Brad Ling, Luke Foster, Billy Reynolds, Glen Golby, Ben O’Brien (C), Joe Killingback (55), Steve Willis, Kieran English, Joe Pearman, Junior Appiah (46).
Subs: Billy Rix (55), Wale Odedoyin (yellow 46), Ben Turner, Joe Staunton, Jason Willis
Canvey Island
Conor Gough, Leon Gordon (86), Ashley Dumas, Jake Pitty, Richard Halle (C ) , Steve Sheehan, Jay Curran (58), Omar Lawson, Ozzy Adeniji, George Sykes (56) , Tony Stokes.
Subs: Tyrell Miller-Rodney, Dan Gilchrist (56), Lawrence Yiga, Dan King (yellow, 86) Glenn Poole (58).
