Basingstoke Town 2 Canvey Island 1

BASINGSTOKE Town completed a great bank holiday weekend as they followed up their victory at Grays on Saturday with their first-ever win over Canvey Island.

Yesterday's victory at the Camrose means that in the space of seven days, Town have taken maximum points off the three sides expected to be battling for honours this season.

The good run of results keeps the Camrose Blues in the chasing pack, just two points behind leaders St Albans.

Against Canvey, Neville Roach - in the starting line-up for hamstring victim Efan Elad - turned in a man-of-the-match performance, netting both goals.

The only downside of the day came when Basingstoke midfielder Toby Sumner was stretchered off after 65 minutes with a knee injury.

Basingstoke took the lead after 11 minutes as Craig McAllister slipped a through ball past Canvey's square back four to Roach. The forward turned Ben Chenery with a deft touch and hit a first-time ball from 18 yards out, beating goalkeeper Danny Potter at his near post.

The home side continued to dominate with the visitors resorting to the long ball without any joy.

But as the half came to a close, Canvey got back into the game and Paul Cobb shot over after combining with Neil Gregory.

Then, three minutes into injury time, Basingstoke grabbed what turned out to be the winning goal. The team broke out of their own area, Roach beat Micky Bennett and then ran the length of the pitch before beating the 'keeper.

After the break, the visitors upped the pressure and Ricky Allaway needlessly handled David Gregory's cross in the area. The resulting spot kick was taken by Gregory's brother Neil who slotted the ball into the right corner to make it 2-1 on the hour.

Soon after, Glenn Howes had his own penalty appeals turned down and then came Sumner's injury.

In a spell of three minutes, both Roach and McAllister went close to adding a third goal before Canvey produced a late rally.

Substitute Lee Boylan nearly scored with his opening touch but Tom Foster forced him to shoot over.

Then, deep into injury time, Scott Tarr produced a great reflex save to push substitute Chris Duffy's shot wide of the post.

Town: Tarr, Dickens, Foster, Gibbens, Allaway, Hemmings, Howes, Sumner (sub Layton 65min), Roach, McAllister, Ewin. Subs not used: Ray, Jones, Arthur, Thomas.

Canvey: Potter, Kennedy, Adedeji, Chenery, Protheroe (Duffy 55), Bennett, Forbes, D Gregory, N Gregory, Cobb (Boylan 75), Minton (Dozzell 90). Subs not used: Brayley, Harrison.