CANVEY Island's Isthmian North clash with Heybridge Swifts, which was due to take place tonight, has been postponed due to problems with the Frost Hire Stadium floodlights.

The Gulls were looking to build on their late victory at Waltham Abbey on Saturday, which saw Frankie Merrifield and debutant Charlie Cole net in the final two minutes to ensure a 2-1 victory.

But Canvey have confirmed that the encounter with Heybridge Swifts will have to be re-arranged.

A club statement read: "The Isthmian North match against Heybridge Swifts at the Frost Hire Stadium has unfortunately been postponed.

"This is due to ongoing problems with one of the floodlights which is causing one area of the pitch to be left in darkness once natural light has gone.

"The company who are able to lower the floodlights for remedial work to take place are not available until October, and efforts to source a cherry picker tall enough for work to be carried out have been unsuccessful in time for this match."

And Canvey manager Danny Heale has been left frustrated as the match is not able to go ahead.

Heale said: "It's out of my hands unfortunately, but when we played Tilbury in a night game last month only three of the six bulbs in one of the floodlights were working.

"The people who the club get to service the floodlights said they could not get to us until October 18, which is obviously too late for us.

"Cherry pickers were expected to go up and fix them last night, but they couldn't go up there because of the heavy winds.

"We had a good result on Saturday and it is always good to play soon after while you have the momentum, but this is out of my control."

Canvey are due to play at home to Dereham Town in another Isthmian North match next Tuesday.

And Heale expects that there will be no problems with the floodlights by that stage, and the meeting will be able to go ahead as planned.

The Gulls boss added: "The floodlights should be sorted out by next Tuesday.

"We wanted to send cherry pickers up there today but the league didn't want us to.

"They said they wanted us to postpone the game yesterday.

"It it frustrating because we had a full squad to choose from and obviously we would have gone into the game full of confidence after the late win at Waltham Abbey.

"We will now have to prepare for Soham Town Rangers on Saturday."