Canvey Island soccer boss Jeff King will not rely on all-out defence in an attempt to gain some reward from their first ever match in the Nationwide Conference tomorrow.

On the goal trail - sharp-shooter Lee Boylan is looking for goals in Carlise Picture: MAXINE CLARKE

"If we did that it could turn out like the Alamo," admitted the Gulls' supremo. "Playing with just one striker is something we've done occasionally, with some success, in the past, and we've thought about it at Carlisle.

"But we're talking about going to a club who have just come down from the Football League and who are going to be backed by a partisan crowd probably well above the 6,000 mark.

"We're fully expecting them to come at us like a train from the start, but perhaps their fans might get a little impatient if they don't find a way through early on.

"We'll give it a go - that's the Canvey way and the way we have risen from country football to the top level of the non-league game in little more than 10 years."

Not that you'll find King making wild predictions that his side are going to take the Conference by storm. "I never made pre-season predictions like that in the past and I'm not going to start now," he said.

Published Friday August 13, 2004

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