Canvey Island 2 Carshalton Athletic 2

With storms lashing the south on Friday evening, there was some surprise when the planned Saturday morning pitch inspection at Canvey’s Brockwell Stadium was cancelled. On arrival in Essex, it turned out that the big problem for the players would be the fierce, swirling wind and it was a credit to both teams that such an entertaining Ryman Premier League game was served up in such difficult conditions.

It soon became apparent that the conditions would favour the visitors in the first half and the Robins looked the better of the two teams in the early stages. Barry Stevens's ability to drift away from his marker looked threatening and a good early run at the heart of the Canvey defence and a speculative shot that sailed just over brought early cheer to the Robins fans.

In between, however, Jason Hallett had the best chance to open the scoring, when he edged ahead of Joe Dolan to shoot narrowly, wide with the Gulls’ players claiming that he had been impeded by the Carshalton central defender. On 17 minutes, the Robins were ahead when Stevens broke through again and, although he enjoyed a fortunate ricochet from a Canvey defender, there was no denying the quality of his shot that flew low into the corner of the net past home keeper, James Russell. Five minutes later, Carshalton came close to a second when Richard Jolly’s well-timed run from just inside the Canvey half took him away from the pursuing defenders, but his last touch was just too strong, giving Russell the chance to race out and thwart the Robins striker with an excellent stop with his feet.

Dolan and Hallett received attention after a collision and Craig Faulconbridge had to leave the field for treatment to a facial injury as both sides worked hard to gain control of the game, but Carshalton were rarely troubled for the remainder of the half.

The second half was always going to be a testing time for Carshalton although they created the first scoring chance when Karl Murray dummied a low cross by Rashid Kamara. The ball fell to Stevens but, on this occasion, his shot was snatched and hurried and trickled wide of the Canvey goal. With Canvey pushing forward in pursuit of an equaliser, an interception in midfield gave Stevens the opportunity for another long run and shot, which was parried by Russell. The ball broke to Jolly, but he was unable to put his shot away before the effort was blocked and cleared.

The Gulls replaced Hallett with Jay Curran and came more into the game, but 18 minutes into the half the Robins could have gone a long way to securing the points when Jolly again broke free. Russell again came to the rescue and the Robins paid the price, when Canvey immediately broke upfield.

Rob Watkins looked to have broken up the attack, but his attempted crossfield clearance was intercepted and Greg Cohen and James Rowe moved the ball across the face of the goal without any of the Carshalton defenders being able to make a telling tackle, leaving Rowe to equalise from close range. Jolly tried his luck as a goal provider setting up Murray for a shot that was driven wide, but the Gulls were now in full cry and Kenny Beaney had to clear a free kick of the line.

On 71 minutes the home team took the lead when another quick break ended with Rowe setting up Curran for a shot. His effort was blocked, but Leon Gordon followed up to score. Manager Francis Vines brought on Jones Awuah in place of Kamara to provide a more physical threat up front and the Robins gradually came back into the game. The question was whether there was enough time to pull back the deficit and the answer came with five minutes remaining, when a slide-rule pass from Jolly found Craig Faulconbridge to his right just inside the area. To the Robins' delight, the consistent striker added to his excellent scoring record with an impressive equaliser.

Carshalton were moving forward again as the final whistle blew but, bearing in mind that this was a game that should have been won but quite easily could have been lost, a draw was probably a fair result.

Robins: Nick Hamann, David Ray, Rob Watkins, Joe Dolan, Justyn Roberts, Kenny Beaney, Barry Stevens, Karl Murray, Craig Faulconbridge, Richard Jolly, Rashid Kamara (Jones Awuah).

Subs not used: Paul Honey, Joshua Webb, Louis Bell, Jon Munday

Attendance: 240

Forthcoming games

Tuesday, November 17 (7.45pm): Carshalton Athletic v Hastings United, Ryman League Premier Division

Saturday, November 21 (3pm): Weston-super-Mare v Carshalton Athletic, FA Trophy – third qualifying round

Tuesday, November 24 (7.45pm): Hendon v Carshalton Athletic, Ryman League Premier Division