CANVEY Island manager Mark Bentley has called upon his former Southend United side to help secure an FA Cup upset tonight.

The Gulls host National League outfit Boreham Wood, who knocked out the Shrimpers in the first round, at Park Lane this evening live on BT Sport.

And Bentley is hoping Blues’ inside knowledge can be key as Canvey line up in the second round for the first time since the 2001/02 season.

“Southend have been great,” said Bentley who made 107 appearances for the Shrimpers between 2004 and 2006.

“Their analyst has sent loads of stuff over and they’ve clipped it all for me so I have all that footage. We’ve had lots of scouting and I’ve seen a lot of footage too.

“Boreham Wood are going to cause us lots of problems but we want to try and stay in the game and frustrate them.

“They will be ones under pressure as they are clear favourites but we want to try and make it as difficult as we can and see what we can do.”

Canvey have been unable to play since beating beating Banbury United in the first round at the start of November due to the coronavirus pandemic after their Isthmian North campaign was suspended.

But Bentley - whose side are the lowest ranked team left in the competition - has been doing all he can to keep his players as fit as possible.

“We’ve kept training two nights a week and we managed to get a couple of games in too that the FA allowed us to play,” said Bentley.

“We played Chelmsford last week and Dagenham and Redbridge on Saturday. Boreham Wood are massive favourites but we’ve got a really good squad here. The togetherness is unbelievable and we will give this a good go.”