Purfleet 3 Canvey Island 2

JK DOUBLE SINKS JK???

How many times have we said or heard - it was a game of two halves?
Well one could be forgiven for using this old footballing clique, as that is exactly what this game was.

The initial opening was fast and furious stuff with both sides setting out their stalls early on to try and establish a foothold on the game. The first real goal threat fell to Neil Gregory, who shot wide for the visitors. Canvey had an inspired few minutes but suddenly found themselves a goal down.
The man of the match - Jon Keeling set off on one of his many runs to get to the edge of the 18 yard line, he whipped in a perfectly placed cross for Paul Linger to head powerfully home from the six yard line giving Ashley Harrison little chance.

This had an immediate effect on the visitors who pressed forward at every opportunity to search for an equaliser. It came in the 37th minute when Alex O'Reilly leapt to catch a rising ball from a corner but collided unluckily with a defender causing him to lose the ball which fell to the feet of Neil Gregory to bury a shot from close range. The second visitors goal came just 60 seconds later when Minton got down the left hand side to deliver a cross which saw Lee Boylan head home to give Canvey a 2-1 half time lead.

The second half saw the Fleet throw everything at the Canvey goal forcing a succession of corners and to the frustration of the Fleet fans the ball just would not go in. Paul Linger saw his free kick hit the angle with the rebound being cleared. Lee Allen hit the crossbar and Harrison made some excellent saves one notable one from a Terry Bowes effort.

There was always the sense that Purfleet would score again as they had fought so hard and pressed the visitors back forcing them to defend.

In the 66th minute, Keeling scored to really set up a grandstand finish. A long kick out from Alex O'Reilly was instantly bought under control by Jon Keeling out on Fleets right hand side. Again he ran straight at two defenders, cutting across them on the edge of the box to fire an unstoppable low drive into the bottom right hand corner of the Canvey goal.

Fleet were certainly in no mood to settle for a point and kept the pressure on. The Fleet defence dealt comfortably with most of the visitor attacks with O'Reilly not being tested too many times.

As the clock ticked away the final few minutes, Jon Keeling scored the goal of the game.
This time he popped up on the right hand side. A terrific run by Terry Bowes saw his lay off a ball into the path of Keeling. Many thought the ball would be played back to Bowes but the quick thinking striker turned and made himself a yard of space to hit a spectacular shot that bent and rose into the top right hand corner of Harrison's goal giving him no chance at all. It was a goal worthy of winning any match and one that won the game for Fleet.

It was nice to see a section of the visiting fans applaud what truly was a great goal from Keeling.

This was a very good game and credit to both teams for proving it; there wasn't a bad tackle throughout and a great advert for the Ryman League.

After the dreadful weather we have been experiencing lately credit also to the groundsman for preparing a great surface for this game to be played on.

Well done to Colin and all the lad's.