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Both goals came during a first half in which Canvey were well on top, forcing Concord’s goalkeeper Andrew Young into several saves. However, whilst Young was keeping Canvey at bay down one end, an unstoppable strike and a well worked counter attack earned the visitors a 2 goal lead which Canvey never really looked like coming back from.

Canvey started brightly, with new signing Bradley Woods-Garness looking particularly dangerous, with Young doing well to turn his shot around the post on 8 minutes.

5 minutes later, Andrew West’s cross from deep found the head of Danny Heale who directed the ball towards the top corner, but once again Young was on hand to tip the shot over the crossbar.

Woods-Garness came close once again on 22 minutes when he picked up the ball inside the area and shot from a tight angle. The shot looked as though it was on it’s way to finding the far corner of the net, but Young saved the ball with his legs and clung on to prevent any chance of a rebound.

With Canvey in the ascendancy, it was therefore a shock when Concord took the lead on 25 minutes. Having cleared the ball from a Concord corner, Kevin Dobinson failed to keep hold of possession and midfielder James Elmes latched onto the loose ball. From here, Elmes struck a superb swerving shot with the outside of his right boot which flew into the net without giving James Russell a hope of pulling off a save.

Despite going a goal down, The Gulls responded well and were soon back on the offensive. Woods-Garness had a long range effort of his own tipped over the bar on 28 minutes, and a minute later a goal mouth scramble had Canvey players appealing that the ball had crossed the line, although the referee and his assistant disagreed.

Steve Sheehan connected with a header from a corner 10 minutes before half time, but his effort was straight at Young who saved comfortably.

With Canvey committing men forward, Concord exposed a weakness in defence through the always dangerous Tony Stokes. A poor free kick gave possession to Stokes who  released left back Kurt Robinson who got in behind Andrew West at right back and delivered a pinpoint cross from the left wing onto the head of Harry Elmes. James Russell got a hand to the ball and very nearly managed to turn it over the cross bar, but could only direct the ball into the top of the net to double The Beachboys’ lead.

On the stroke of half time Kevin Dobinson turned Lee White inside out and delivered a ball across goal from the byline, but Young once again was on hand to smother the ball.

John Batch didn’t make any changes at half time which was representative of the way the team had played in the first half. However, with Concord looking resolute at the back, Jason Hallett replaced Jay Curran on the hour mark.

Rob King had a couple of chances either side of this substitution, and Leon Gordon had a shout for a penalty turned down with 15 minutes to play.

With Canvey flooding forward Concord were able to play on the counter attack, and did this effectively on numerous occasions in the second half, with only some wayward shooting from the likes of Stokes and James Elmes denying Concord further goals.

Danny Kerrigan replaced Kevin Dobinson on 83 minutes, but by this point Canvey seemed resigned to defeat from a match that on another day with a little more luck, they will have felt they could have won.