CANVEY Island produced a dominant second half display to beat Basildon United 4-1 at the Ho Ho Stadium, reports Andrew Impey.

A Jose Figura brace, along with goals from Josh Hutchinson and substitute Adam Vyse, resulted in Callum Taylor’s effort being no more than a consolation for the hosts.

And Gulls boss Mark Bentley was satisfied with how his team performed in the Isthmian North derby.

“I’m happy with the performance as Basildon is a tough place to come,” said Bentley.

“The pitch isn’t what we’re used to but we’ve done alright away from home.

“That’s our third win on the bounce away from our surroundings, which is quite nice if I’m being honest.

“We haven’t performed at our ‘nice’ venue so it’s pleasing that our boys have got that other side to them where they can roll their sleeves up and put on a good performance.”

The deadlock was broken on 21 minutes when Figura was played in on goal and expertly bent the ball into the far corner.

Basildon levelled 10 minutes later when the ball was played over the top to Taylor in acres of space and he fired into the bottom corner.

Canvey looked purposeful in the second half and re-took the lead after 56 minutes when Hutchinson fired home from close range.

They should have scored a third shortly after but Martin Tuohy’s penalty was well saved by Emmanuel Olajide after Frankie Merrifield had been felled.

The Gulls did make it 3-1 on 67 minutes when Figura met the loose ball on the edge of the box and struck first time into the bottom corner past the unmoved keeper.

The visitors sealed victory on 81 minutes when Vyse shrugged off a defender and slotted past the onrushing keeper.

Despite the result, Basildon boss Neil Blackburn was positive about the effort of his players.

Blackburn said: “It’s certainly an improvement on last week.

“We are creating a lot more chances, so that’s a positive that we’ve got to take into Saturday’s game.

“At the end of the day we’re just switching off for 10-minute periods, which is hurting us.

“Other teams are getting chances and they’re scoring, we’re getting a lot of chances but we’re not scoring.

“The positive was that the effort was there for 90 minutes and it’s just little bits of quality in defensive areas that has hurt us.”