Aveley 3, Canvey Island 1

ON a freezing cold Friday night (2 December) at Parkside, Aveley welcomed Canvey Island for a local Essex Derby to kick off both teams' 2026 Isthmian Premier campaign.

The hosts were looking to make it 14 league games unbeaten to push into the play-off places, with Canvey Island fighting for their lives and having a resurgence since Garry Kimble's arrival.

Aveley were on top from the start and came close to taking the lead after Jayden Gipson saw his cross strike the crossbar and go out for a goal kick. And inside 15 minutes, the hosts took the lead, and it was striker Chris Harris again, scoring for the third time in the last four games. Gipson had space down the right-hand side after a lovely threaded pass by Ollie Peters; Gipson centred to Harris, who applied a first-time finish to guide it past Jacob Marsden in the Canvey goal.

Only a couple of minutes later, and Aveley doubled their lead. A free-kick from Saunders was flicked into the path of Gipson, who finished like a fox in the box and fired home close to 12 yards out.

The visitors had a plethora of chances at the end of the first half, with Scott Kashkett seeing his effort well saved by Joe Wright. Into the second half, a half-cleared cross landed at the feet of Canvey's Matas Skarna, who was able to find the bottom corner of the Aveley goal to get the visitors back into the game.

Within ten minutes, Aveley restored the two-goal buffer when Gipson popped up and found the top corner of the net.

During the last 30 minutes, the hosts went hunting for more goals, and should have been given the opportunity from the penalty spot after Marsden took down Ryan Charles inside the penalty area. Despite the keeper lifting his arms in guilt, the spot kick wasn't given.

Aveley had the ball in the Canvey net twice more before the full-time whistle, but neither counted. George Saunders finished well but saw the offside flag raised while applying the finish. Latest Aveley signing Toby Aromalaran raced in on goal and chipped the keeper, but again, the assistant referee put his flag up.

Manager Brett Munyard's post match thoughts: