Canvey Island gave their bid for a high finish in their first season at Ryman League Premier Division level a massive boost with a 3-0 home derby success over Billericay Town on Saturday.

Although leaders Dagenham - who recovered from their recent bad spell with a 3-0 home success over Dulwich - look odds-on favourites for the title, there's no doubt that Gulls are now in with a great chance of finishing runners-up.

They are still fourth but are now just two points behind second-placed St Albans with two games in hand and, after this latest triumph, manager Jeff King is adamant that the Islanders are very much looking to the future.

A £50,000 grant from the Football Trust will go towards building new dressing rooms and a boardroom and this will be starting in a matter of weeks.

Also, on the playing side, Canvey plan to be in a position football-wise to go for the title, and hopefully accompanying Nationwide Conference status, next term.

Gulls have already tied a number of their leading stars to long-term contracts and King said: "We will be looking for four or five top quality players to add to the squad during the summer.

"I think Dagenham will take the title this time round and, if we achieve second place, it will be a marvellous feat. If we don't we still look set for a very high finish and that would be a great performance in our first season.

"Certainly we want to be in a position to make a major challenge both on and off the pitch next time round."

For long periods of Saturday's action these two sides, who know so much about each other's play, cancelled each other out.

The opening 45 minutes was tedious in the extreme and certainly weren't helped by an over-fussy referee who never allowed the action to flow.

I had some sympathy for Paul Vosper, the man in black, as he probably felt it would be ill-advised to let too much go in the steaming cauldron of a local derby.

However, his far too frequent interventions meant that the action had very little flow to it in the opening 45 minutes.

Billericay, with back from injury Stafford Browne prominent, were by far the more productive attacking side in the opening stages.

Browne put an early effort over the top and then tried an acrobatic overhead kick which ever-improving Ashley Harrison, in the home goal, was well-positioned to hold.

There was a suspicion early on that the speed and direct running of Browne and Joe Baker might cause problems for the Canvey rearguard, but top form Steve Ward's athleticism soon put an end to such fears.

Harrison had to race well out of his area to clear one attack as Colin Simpson tried to latch onto a through ball, but memorable action was so sparse that spectators close to me started to inquire about the latest score in the Bolton v Charlton FA Cup tie.

The second-half was a far brighter affair. Browne looked set to break clear after 52 minutes, only to be halted by a superb Ward tackle, and Town midfielder Paul Linger was unlucky to see his 63rd minute effort deflected off the underside of the bar by a home player.

However, the second-half generally belonged to Canvey as magnificent man-of-the-match Mark Stimson began to exert a growing influence in midfield.

Billericay were slowly vanishing from the action as an attacking force and this gave Micky Bennett increasing opportunities to break free from defensive duties and launch attacking forays down the right.

From one of these, the ex-Brighton player of the year sent over a cross which deceived Billericay goalkeeper Gavin King and was knocked out for a corner by Kirk Game at the far post.

Steve Tilson sent over the set-piece from the left and, when attack leader Neil Gregory flicked on with his head, Paul Abrahams was at the far post to shoot home a 68th minute opener from close range.

There was a touch of ill-fortune for Billericay over the second goal. Stimson and the equally impressive Chris Duffy combined superbly in midfield and the latter put Tilson behind the visiting defence to make it 2-0 five minutes later.

Town were undoubtedly caught short of numbers at the back in the move, but did have defender Game lying injured in midfield throughout the build-up to the goal.

Sammy Cooper was beginning to work his magic against his old team-mates on the left now and to be honest Canvey were well in control and winning everything by then.

Billericay, with the game beyond them lost discipline in the closing stages and quite clearly fouled Gregory in the penalty area as the game moved into injury-time. Tilson stepped forward to score from the spot for his 22nd goal of the term.

Said King: "I thought we were well worth the win in the end. There was only one team out there which set out to win the game - Billericay's main aim was to avoid being beaten."

Town boss Gary Calder admitted: "We didn't make them work hard enough to win the game."

While Calder must be worried that, despite his side's recent knockout competition heroics, they are still some points clear of avoiding being dragged into the relegation dogfight - they dropped to 13th with this defeat.

Canvey's faithful among the 1,040 crowd are looking forward to another massive home date next Saturday when Aldershot come to Park Lane.

Eyes left - Billericay defender Kirk Game (number two) and Canvey's Neil Gregory in action at Park Lane

Picture: LUAN MARSHALL

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