DANNY Heale says nothing will surprise him in the chase for promotion to the Isthmian Premier League this season.

The Gulls are currently fourth in the Isthmian North but can close the gap on second-placed Bowers & Pitsea to four points with victory tonight.

However, Dereham Town are just a single point behind Canvey in the standings and have their eye on automatic promotion themselves.

And Heale says his players need to keep believing in themselves as they bid to bounce back from a 1-1 draw against Barking on Saturday.

“I thought it was a game of two halves,” said the Gulls chief. “Barking edged the first half and we were by far the better side in the second half. But on chances created it was probably a fair result. Maybe we will see it as a point gained.

“We will leave at about 3pm today, which isn’t ideal but we have to put that out of our minds.

“Dereham try to play football, although I have a mate working in the area at the moment and he says it was snowing yesterday. Obviously I hope it thaws out and we can get the game played.

“We need to stay in the pack. We are up and down like a yo-yo this year, but that is the same for everyone.

“Nothing surprises me in this league this year. We won one and lost one, won one and lost one for a while but are still in the play-offs.

“Just when we turn a corner we seem to get beaten down. But we got a good result against them last time out [4-1 win] and want a similar situation tonight.”