MARK Bentley believes Canvey Island will be in high spirits as they go into today’s local derby with Basildon United.

The Gulls will welcome the Bees to the Frost Hire Stadium looking to build on their last-gasp 3-2 victory over bottom side Mildenhall Town.

Thomas Debenham put Mildenhall ahead before Ryan Melaugh levelled matters.

Although Matthew Hayden restored the home side’s advantage, Frankie Merrifield netted an 89th minute penalty before rounding the goalkeeper in injury time to score the winner.

And, although he was not impressed with his side’s performance, Bentley felt it was important to go into this afternoon’s Isthmian North clash on the back of a win.

The Canvey boss said: “It’s really nice to win with two last minute goals.

“I should be excited with the fact that we’ve got a last minute winner but we were poor.

“They are bottom of the league and fighting for their lives, but I don’t want us to take it easy until the end of the season.

“We’ve got two games to go and credit to the players because we’ve scored a few late goals in the last few weeks.

“That’s a change but I’m looking at next year and a couple of the players let themselves down.

“We’ve got a quick turnaround and the players will be in high spirits after turning the game around and winning with a few minutes to go.

“We will go into the Basildon game and go again.”

Basildon head to Canvey having been condemned to a 1-0 defeat by Barking thanks to Nana Boakye-Yiadom’s late goal.

And Bees boss John Sussex is looking forward to the derby.

“Canvey have some very good players, there is no doubt about that,” said Sussex.

“Their form has been a bit indifferent and I feel as though, if we play anywhere near to our potential, then it will be a very competitive game.

“We were very competitive against Barking and it was a very even game until the last 15 minutes, when they came on stronger.

“A lot of the goals we have conceded since I took over have come late on and we have to find out why.”