Saturday March 25 2000 will almost certainly go down in the annals of non-league soccer history as the day Canvey Island's dream of winning the Ryman League Premier Division title at the first attempt ended.

Home defeat by a Hampton and Richmond side who moved three points further clear of relegation worries with their victory means that Gulls look extremely unlikely to be able to finish any higher than second - and even that could eventually be beyond them.

Aldershot Town, 18 points behind but with four games in hand, are the only club in with any kind of realistic chance of catching runaway leaders Dagenham and Redbridge now - and that's looking unlikely.

Canvey, although still second, are 15 points behind Daggers from just one game less and Saturday's display somehow summed up the failings of what has admittedly generally been an outstanding debut season in the top flight.

They could quite easily go out and win at Aldershot a fortnight tomorrow and grab three points from their Easter Monday visit to Dagenham, but they've lost far too many points to lesser opposition.

Disappointed boss Jeff King admitted: "We've dropped 21 points against teams not yet clear of the fight against relegation - and that's been our undoing.

"I though that in recent months we'd got out of taking the less fancied clubs too lightly and suffering shock defeats, but all our bad habits were back today.

"I've been quick to praise our players for some of the tremendous performances we've produced this season, but I've just told them that they've let themselves and the club down today."

Things had started brightly enough for Gulls when, after 20 minutes, skipper Steve Tilson took advantage of a poor clearance to fire his side ahead with a left-foot shot.

From then on, the Islanders could and should have killed off the opposition and had the game won by half-time. Tilson hit the bar with a header from Chris Duffy's cross from the right two minutes after the goal.

Then, after 32 minutes, Neil Gregory's header was tipped onto the bar by visiting goalkeeper Rob Frankland from Tilson's left-wing corner.

The ball came down to hit the bar again, but Gulls were never to threaten in such a mencing manner again.

In fact, 11 minutes before the break, Hampton grabbed a shock equaliser when skipper Jason's Shaw's speculative 25-yarder from way out on the left beat home keeper Ashley Harrison's despairing leap and crashed into the top corner.

Canvey could never recapture their first-half domination in a dire second 45 minutes. They completely lacked inspiratioon and the visitors, despite losing ex Football League striker Craig Maskell through injury after 50 minutes, sensed they could achieve something more than a draw from the proceedings.

Those dreams turned into reality after 78 minutes. Canvey had never looked 100 per cent comfortable at the back without ankle injury absentee Steve Ward and central defenders Mciky Bennett and Garry Britnell made a complete hash of trying to clear a harmless looking centre which Warren Williams seized on to gleefully smash home the winner.

Williams, courtesy of a poor Bennett clearance, would have made it 3-1 three minutes later but for an outstanding Harrison save, but Canvey's task was beyond them by now.

With two of their next three League games against relegation strugglers, the Islanders really must start remembering to treat all opposition with the same level of respect.

Under pressure - Canvey striker Andy Jones gets a close encounter with a Hampton defender at Park Lane. Picture: STEPHEN LLOYD

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.