A nice early start for Beavers FC as we met for a 7.30am departure for the IFA League game against Canvey Island. At the helm of the transport kindly paid for by Mr Cole was Colin who deserves a big thankyou for his forward driving ability (not reverse) and his patience with a full bus of Beavers.

On probably most peoples first visit to the Island we were bathed in glorious sunshine as we entered the wide flat expances of fields that make up this outpost. Some unique architecture and tourist attractions were on hand in the form of an enormous oil refinary, electricity pylons and container ships. Who needs St Pauls Cathederal, The Eiffel Tower and Gondolas?

Apparently this place was once a major holiday resort with its own caravans and even a bar for those early package tours, but this must have been before Spain was invented. The locals are very friendly as they greet you by stopping whatever they are doing and staring at you with a puzzled look the sort of welcome you get when in Norfolk.

The match against Canvey Island FC was played on a dry hard pitch which at first took a little while to adapt to with both sides making a slow start.
The early breaks however did fall our way with Jamie N netting twice with both disallowed for offside, one clearly but the other debatable. Jamie N appearing to be level when the ball was played, the Canvey linesman giving it because his head was offside???
We then began struggling and in all honesty were not playing to our best and kept letting Canvey through, peppering our stand in keeper Curt's goal with shot after shot. The inevitable happened on 20 mins, when from a corner we did not clear our lines and from an unchallenged header Canvey went one nil up.
This was our wake up call and we started to play a bit of football with our midfield of Paul H, Colin and Danny starting to show some authority supplying our forwards Lee Dev and Jamie N with the ball. Jamie N made use of this with his now customary attacking play rounding the keeper and slotting home for our first goal.
What followed next came straight out of the Ronaldhino soccer coaching manual, when Jamie M makes a run down the left and from thirty yards out curls the ball in to the top corner of the net to put us 2-1 up. It was a truly amazing effort because most people were expecting him to cross the ball!
With us thinking our job was done we succumbed to the sucker punch goal and we went into the half time break level.

Half Time: Canvey Island 2 Beavers 2

The second half saw the introduction of Gibbo and Dave R, with Reesy playing particularly well, showing good touch and commitment. We also saw our eagerly awaited substitute Dave B who showed some class with good support play and took a few players on while running with the ball. In this half the Beavers seemed to move up a gear as Canvey tired but what happened next was the turning point. The referee standing 50yds away from the action hears a shout from Canvey that a handball has been commited in the Beavers area he thinks for a moment and then blows the whistle to give a penalty. In fact he was so far away he could not see the linesman holding his flag out.
The Canvey player places the ball on the spot, lines up to take his kick at which point the ref's attention is drawn to the linesman who informs him that Canvey had been offside all along. The ref then changes his mind from penalty to free kick Hamptons way. With Canvey scratching their heads the ball is pumped up the field to Jamie N who smashes it into their net! The scores level again, Beavers FC held out for the remainder of the game to leave the field happy to share the points.
As we left our good friends from Canvey Island FC who were genuinley nice people, they said they hoped our 1st team would beat Chelmsford as they have some rivalry particularly with the manager.
On going to Chelmsford and seeing this portly fellow in short sleeved open necked Hawaiian style shirt and sunglasses, I realized that after managing Canvey, he must still take his holiday's in a caravan on The Island and must have upset some of the locals!

On our return to the Bev the exhaustion of the day finally took it's toll on Lil' Dave who had worked so hard during the game that he needed a little lie down.

Final Score: Canvey Island FC 3 Beavers FC 3

POM: Colin Rance

Line Up: Curt, Jamie M, Macey, Simmo, Michael (Gibbo 45), Jamie H (Dave B 60) Paul H, Colin, Danny (Dave R 45), Lee Dev, Jamie N.