Canvey Island 1 Tonbridge 1

Match 58/15/1263 - Saturday, 9th January 2016 - Ryman Premier

Canvey Island (1) 1 James-Lewis 20
Tonbridge (1) 1 Parkinson 28
Attendance: 361

Entrance: £6 Senior
Programme: £2
Mileage: 107/4,157

There cannot be a Saturday gone by, ever, when within earshot, somebody has verbally abused a referee for what they consider has been a wrong decision made against their team. I might even have directed said abuse myself on the odd occasion.

Most right-minded supporters understand that the man-in-the-middle's job is difficult and at times thankless, regardless of the fact that they are paid, and some would argue, paid well.

A curious incident, late in the second half of this game provided a heavily debated discussion on social media with, in my opinion, no definitive answer, but also proof that despite years of watching the game, I still don't know the rules!

I can play Arsene Wenger's card as having not seen the incident in the first instance. A ball was played to around the penalty box and a couple of players made a challenge for it. At that point there were loud appeals from Tonbridge supporters behind the goal. The referee immediately brought the game to a halt and appeared to be pointing at the penalty spot. Slightly bemused, I thought he had given a handball, but it was for dangerous play on behalf of the Canvey Island defender, but the referee had not given a penalty but an indirect free kick.

This is where my lack of knowledge of the rules surfaced, but it seems I was far from alone. Around me, Tonbridge fans were incensed that a penalty was the only option available to the referee, but seemingly not. I have two ex-referees among my friends and they concurred with the decision, whilst in the stands, a Tonbridge forum member was being told by the referee's assessor that he didn't know what he was talking about.

The decision centres around intent. In the referee's opinion there was no contact or intent, so although the foot was dangerously high, no penalty. Sonny Miles later tweeted about the mud down Tom Parkinson's face indicating, in his opinion, contact had been made. Chris Varney, from the Tonbridge bench, also posted that was what the official had told them as they left the pitch.

Dave Couldridge's photograph appears to clearly show contact, but even this brought alternative viewpoints.

I think my greatest gripe, whilst accepting the referee's decision, is that anywhere else on the pitch it would have been seen as dangerous play with intent. Several other qualified referee's joined in the debate on social media and they pretty much stood by each other.

As usual, a stiff wind blew from behind the sea wall making playing conditions difficult for both sides. Meanwhile, on a another day of local postponements through waterlogged pitches, there was no inspection required at Canvey Island.

Tonbridge started brightly with Charlie Webster bringing a comfortable save out of the towering Connor Gough. The visitors also had the ball in the net within the opening five minutes when Nathan Elder converted after being sent through by James Folkes, but a linesman's flag ruled it out in a very tight call.

Canvey Island grew into the game and, after quarter of an hour, Tambeson Eyong was sent clear but was denied by firstly a blocking save from Anthony Di Bernardo and then a further block from Laurence Ball.

The home side took the lead after 20 minutes. A corner from the left was only cleared by an upward header that was knocked back to the edge of the box to the waiting Merrick James-Lewis, whose first touch flicked the ball in the air and his second that was a very sweet volley that took a heavy deflection off Miles, wrong footing Di Barnardo.

Canvey had a spell in the ascendancy whilst Tonbridge were struggling to get Nicky Wheeler into the game. Wheeler's value came to the fore after 27 minutes when his corner was met at the far post with a Parkinson header that found the bottom corner for an equaliser.

Tonbridge, with the wind at their backs, created a number of chances in the last quarter hour of the half. Wheeler shot wide; a Webster cross offered another heading opportunity for Parkinson, but this one drifted wide and similarly Elder headed wide in the final throes of the half.

After Contactgate, Tonbridge made a wasted a host of chances that should have made that particular decision irrelevant. Elder's radar wasn't quite on beam, a Webster cross was steered wide and another from Whitnell saw his header clip the top of the bar. With seven minutes remaining Luke Blewden set Elder up with a golden opportunity but once more his header was wide.

With a couple of minutes remaining, it looked like those wasted chances would come back to bite the visitors when Di Barnardo suffered a rush of blood racing from his goal and robbed at the left hand corner flag. His blushes were spared by two fine blocks, firstly by Ball and then by a combination of Miles and Ball before the ball was ballooned over the bar.

A nick off the left hand post in the final act of the afternoon proved it just wasn't to be Nathan Elder's day as Tonbridge had to accept a share of the points for the umpteenth time in the last 10 games. It is a run of draws that is becoming damaging to their hopes of automatic promotion.