CANVEY'S dream of reaching the final of non-league soccer's major knockout competition is over.

Gulls were beaten 2-1 last night in their fifth round replay at Conference South Bishop's Stortford, who now go on to host the Islanders' Nationwide Conference rivals Gravesend and Northfleet for a place in the semi-finals on Saturday week.

After seeing his side KO'd by an 85th minute Tim Langer goal, visiting boss Jeff King, whose side are perilously close to being dragged into a relegation dogfight, insisted: "We've got to quickly put this behind us.

"We haven't got time to sit back feeling sorry for ourselves. We're seven points clear of the relegation zone at the moment and we've got to make sure we're not dragged into trouble.

"I've just told the players that this is over and we've got to forget about it. We gave it our best shot tonight on a very heavy surface.

"We certainly had more of the possession and played the best football, but credit Stortford. They worked their nuts off and got their reward.

"There's no complaints from us. We'd have loved to have gone to Villa Park for a final again in May, but it's not to be."

* Full match report and pictures in Wednesday's Echo.