Good afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen and welcome to today's Isthmian League Bostic North Division fixture. Can I also welcome the players, management, committee and supporters of Canvey Island FC.

In the reverse fixture we were able to achieve a 2-0 victory which was the catalyst to reversing our poor early season league form. I have personally had many great games with the Gulls as their fortunes seem to have mirrored mine at times. I also have great respect for their Chairman John Batch, who like me could be described as a dedicated 'Non-Leaguer'.

Either ends of the spectrum for our last two games in all aspects with a win and a defeat to cast my eye over; I will start in last Saturdays match at Basildon United.

The Bees have had a season full of turmoil. As early pass setters they led the league but following a decision that the budget was not sustainable they lost their manager to Tilbury and a lot of players mostly also to the Dockers. Since then their results have been inconsistent at best but on a very poor pitch we knew we had to be prepared for a battle.

To be fair we started exceptionally well with wave after wave of good attacking play backed up by a solid defensive shape. We opened the scoring with Billy Holland showing great composure to fire in from an over hit corner. We didn't have to wait long for the second with Callum Harrison charging the home custodian down, forcing a mistake to score.

The third came not long after as Phil Kelly finished smartly from close range following a Darryl Coakley corner. 3-0 at the break to be honest flattered our hosts who really were not in the game.

Being solid in the second half was order of the day and aim for a clean sheet and pleasingly both were achieved with Callum getting his second and our fourth to cap of a fine performance. Getting wins at places like Basildon has been our Achilles Heel this season and we know that we need to strive to find the recipe to do this on a regular basis if we are to progress going forward. However, this match was a good start.

On Tuesday we welcomed form side Maldon and Tiptree to the Mel Group Stadium. With a few players missing I took the opportunity to pick a team that was probably the youngest ever AFC 1st XI. This was not done with the intention to achieve that feat but to have a look at how we could deal with a team that would more than match our comfortableness of playing on a 3G pitch.

In all honesty I am not in the slightest concerned with the result because at stages throughout the game we more than matched our guests and for the first 20 minutes or so domineered the match.

However, the decent chances we created were not put away and at the highest level you get punished for that. This game was no difference as the Jammers had three chances in the first half and scored three goals!

For us Tom Maycock scored again to continue his development as a real striking option in the team. With two more excellent goals scored in the second half we still played with confidence and to quote the Maldon management the score was just not a reflection of the match.

Of course, when we look closely at the goals conceded there are areas to sharpen ourselves up on which will we continue to do going forward. The key thing in this match was the lessons learned and how we can incorporate those into our play.

For me I thoroughly enjoyed the game as the quality of the football played by both sides was as good as we have seen this season. In addition, I note that the majority of our fans were enjoying the game and many positives were conveyed to me and my staff after the game.

I suspect that I have to accept that there will always be those who do not buy into what we are trying to achieve at the club. I would like to say though there is little point in shouting at the players to just hit the ball long because it is just not going to happen under my stewardship. If we have the ball, then the opposition cannot score and as we work very hard to regain possession returning the ball in some Neanderthal fashion is not on the current AFC menu.

Enjoy the game

MJM