Saturday 15 January 2005 - Twerton Park - kick off 3.00pm
Southern League Premier Division
half-time: 0-1 result: L0-3 attendance: 693
team: Evans, Rollo (c), Coupe, Jones, Bailey, Trought (Brigham 84), Benefield (Hawkins 61), Owers, Milton, Williams, Sykes. subs not used: Shuttlewood, Hulbert, Cleverley.
man of the match: Sam Bailey
scorers: none
bookings: Coupe (66), Sykes (81)
officials: M Mullarkey (Exeter), Ms J Kingwell (Exeter), R Greenwood (Exeter)
league position: n/a form: WLWLDL next match: Merthyr (H)
City’s hopes of adding the name of Canvey Island to their roll of giant-killing honour this season – alongside Barnet, Havant & Waterlooville and Carshalton Athletic – fell apart in the Twerton Park mud as they failed to build on a bright start and ended up on the wrong end of a 3-0 scoreline. And whilst this outcome slightly flattered the Conference side their place in the FA Trophy 4th Round was never in doubt once Paul Evan’s poor clearance had gifted them a second goal early in the second half. With Scott Partridge sidelined with an ankle injury and Luke Corbett cup-tied City were forced into pairing top scorer John Williams with midfielder Alex Sykes up front. In the midfield Gary Owers returned in place of the departed Darren Caskey and Russell Milton got the nod ahead of Ben Cleverley. And with Graeme Power still injured the back four was unchanged from the Halesowen match with Jim Rollo remaining in the middle of the park. The game began well for City and they could have gone ahead after just two minutes. A rare foray forward by Steve Jones saw him run onto Sykes’ pass but his shot was blocked by keeper Potter. Jimmy Benefield then tested the goalie with an optimistic lob. Canvey were not being allowed to settle and the next opening fell to Williams. He raced away down the right from another Sykes pass only to see his shot deflected behind for a corner. This was one of five City won in the opening 25 minutes, which summed up their dominance, but after another Williams effort was parried away by Potter on 23 minutes the visitors finally began to get into the match. A glancing header by McGhee’s forced Evans into action for the first time around the half hour mark and seven minutes later he produced a stunning save from Berquez’s diving header. From the resultant corner he was again in the right place to block Boylan’s initial shot. However, the ball rebounded to Berquez and, after his first effort had hit the post, he managed to bundle the ball over the line. Somewhat unlucky to be behind City could have fallen further into arrears before the break as Boylan and McDougald both went close.

Just a single goal down City were still well in the game as the second half started but within five minutes of the restart a brace of mistakes gifted Canvey a 2nd goal. The first saw Mike Trought allow a long ball forward to bounce forcing Evans to race from goal to attempt to clear. However, all he succeeded in doing was scuffing the ball to Boylan just 30 yards out and he had the simple task of lifting a shot into the unguarded net. And just another six minutes had passed when the Islanders scored a third goal, although this time there was little City could do about it as they were opened up by some quality football. Boylan was the creator as his pass sent Berquez clear and he rolled the ball across Evans into the corner of the net. City soon replaced the ineffectual Benefield with Darren Hawkins but Canvey were now in total control of the game and comfortably dealing with the little threat they produced. Frustration soon began to creep in and Matt Coupe was lucky to escape with just a yellow card for two lunging tackles on Midgley, although the Canvey substitute could also have seen red for his reaction to the challenges. That incident aside the game drifted quietly toward its conclusion with Boylan heading over and Evans preventing Midgley getting on the score sheet. Sykes did go close to grabbing a late consolation goal for City, firing narrowly wide, and was also unlucky when a late offside flag denied him a run on goal – he was booked for his complaints – but long before the final whistle City knew their serious cup interests were over for another season.