My Only Canvey

Canvey Island  1  Aveley  2

Isthmian League – Division One North

“You are my Canvey, my only Canvey, you make me happy….”

With something of a hangover, following Belper Town’s famous FA Vase quarter final victory at Metropolitan Police the previous day, myself and Mr H Senior decided to have a drive to Oxford on the Sunday to see Oxford City play Canvey Island at the same stage of the competition.

The season was 1994-95, and having beaten heavily fancied Stamco in the previous round, Canvey were one of the favourites for the Vase. We arrived at Court Place Farm just as a double decker bus turned up from Essex containing the Canvey fans, and my abiding memory of the day was the noise they created, especially compared to a somewhat muted home support. The singing never stopped, and even as they went 2-0 down and the game was clearly beyond them, the support continued.

Canvey Island Football Club is quite a story, and that day at Oxford was at the early stages of a tale that saw triumph, glory, headlines, and ultimately an abrupt change in fortune.

The Terrace

Jeff King was the man behind it all, once a player, then a manager and a Chairman / owner, the local businessman funded a dream, a dream that for a brief period came true.

In the 1992-93 season, the club won the Essex Senior League, but alongside that they reached the semi-final of the FA Vase, losing out over two legs to perhaps the best side in the Country at that level at the time, Tiverton Town.

The following season they finished runners up in the Third Division of the Isthmian League, and of course lost out in the Vase quarter final to Oxford City. One year later, the Second Division title was in the bag, and with it an FA Cup First Round tie against Brighton & Hove Albion, who were held to a 2-2 draw at Park Lane before the professional club won the replay 4-1. The Vase again saw them reach the last eight, only to lose to Flixton this time around.

Looking East

1996-97 was a bit of shocker as the club were relegated, had the bubble burst?  No, it hadn’t because one year later they had returned to the First Division with another championship, and that was followed up twelve months later with a back to back title and the club found themselves in the Premier Division.

Five years were spent in the Isthmian League Premier Division, the first season saw them finish fifth, then for three years on the bounce they claimed the runners up spot, before in 2003-04 they won the Championship and with it promotion to the Football Conference, the pinnacle of non-league football.

Also in the five year period, they beat Port Vale in the FA Cup before losing to neighbours Southend United, and then the following season they won at Wigan Athletic, beat Northampton Town at home before falling in the Third Round at Burnley. In the promotion season Southend were drawn again, with the tie at Roots Hall ending in a draw, only for the away side to win the replay in front of a packed house at Park Lane.

Main Stand

The ultimate achievement in knock out competitions came in 2000-1 season when they made it to the FA Trophy Final at Villa Park having beaten Conference sides Telford United, Stevenage Borough and Chester City on the way, and then in the Final they beat Forest Green Rovers by a solitary goal. Villa Park was reached again in 2003-04 but this time Hednesford Town came out on top, a game that I saw with Mr H Senior. The scoreline this time around was 3-2 to the Midlanders.

During that period, in 1999-00 to be precise, I was on a course in North London and decided to watch Canvey play an away game at St Albans City, they won 5-2 and were absolutely superb, I knew then that this was very much a club on the up, but, it was clear then, this was largely down to the financial clout of Mr King, who turned up at the game in a pimped up van that resembled the Mystery Machine from Scooby Doo!

Two seasons in the Conference saw eighteenth and fourteenth placed finishes, but then suddenly Mr King decided to move to Chelmsford City, citing the fact that the club simply wasn’t getting the support it needed to be viable. In simple terms, gates were poor, but given the size of the local population, was it ever going to get any better one might ask?

Lush Surface

Voluntary demotion came, right down to the Isthmian League First Division, which they remained in for two seasons before being promoted to the Premier Division, a competition they competed in for nine seasons until relegation befell them in 2017. They lost out in the play-off final last season to Haringey Borough, and this season, they sit just outside the play offs in what is Step 4 of the non-league pyramid. Bizarrely, the other club in Canvey, Concord Rangers, ply their trade two leagues above them.

Quite a story, not quite one of boom and bust, but certainly one of highs and lows. They have always held something of a fascination for me, probably due to that first encounter in Oxford, and as a result I’d made the decision to make a visit to Park Lane at some point this season.

Terrace Again

I wasn’t meant to be going to Canvey Island though today, I was meant to be going to Merthyr Town, but that got called off due to a serious dumping of snow in South Wales. With a few plastic pitch options and some on grass in the South East, I took an early decision to drive down the M1 as far as Toddington Services and then make a decision where to go.

Canvey Island was the favourite before I set off, and with back-ups at Concord Rangers and on the plastic at Grays Athletic, a cursory check over a coffee and an affirmative tweet from the club convinced me to head clockwise on the M25.

Canvey Island is accessed via the Southend Arterial Road, and what is known as the Canvey Way which sits above the creeks and marshes that separate the island from the Essex mainland. With the huge petrochemical plants in the distance, which the IRA once had a good go at blowing up, Canvey Island was once a popular holiday resort on the Thames Estuary, but tragedy struck in 1953 when the river burst its banks due to a North Sea tidal surge and 59 lives were lost in the floods, that also saw 13,000 inhabitants have to flee their homes.

Looking Thames-ward

Consequently a huge sea wall runs along the banks of the Thames to protect Canvey Island from further natural disasters. Canvey Island today is still a busy town with over 38,000 inhabitants, but tourism is not a key player as it once was.

The Park Lane ground of the football club sits to the East of the town centre, and is only a couple of hundred yards from the sea wall, in fact as you enter through the turnstiles a marker on the wall of the terraces depicts where the sea level is, about a metre and a half above pitch level!

What a cracking ground it is, a mixture of structures that have been put in place as the club has progressed through the leagues. The focal point is without doubt the huge terrace that sits behind the North goal, and its yellow crush barriers. The views from here are fantastic, but you are somewhat open to the elements on a windy day like today!

On the West side of the ground is the smart clubhouse and dressing rooms, and a low roofed seated stand that runs from the half way line all the way down to the bottom corner flag. Behind the South goal is some smaller terracing, while on the East side are two covered terrace areas that sit either side of the dugouts. Space is at a premium, but Canvey Island have made the most of it.

Support these days is around the 250 mark, and with local rivals and promotion chasing Aveley in town, a decent number of away fans had turned up on a bitterly cold day to see the action.

The Players Are Out

The Islanders took the lead in the sixth minute through James White who prodded the ball home from close range, but the visitors started to get a foothold in the game and after Alex Akrofi missed a great chance after rounding the goalkeeper, he made amends in the 25^th minute with a well taken equaliser.

The second half was an even affair, but as the game moved into the closing stages, it was that man Akrofi who found himself in space on the left hand side to finish well, with just three minutes left on the clock. An additional four minutes were added at the end, but Canvey could not force an equaliser, despite the vocal backing they were getting from a small, but loyal group of ‘Canvey Ultras’.

And that was it, Canvey Island, a super day out, especially considering the wintry weather which befell the South of the Country in the previous 48 hours.

“….when skies are grey”

The Sea Wall Sits Behind.....