Canvey Island F.C.
Canvey Island F.C, known as the Gulls or Yellow Army, are an English association football club founded in 1926.
Based on Canvey Island in the estuary of the Thames, their ground Park Lane is a few feet below sea level and at one end ships are sometimes seen going by in a highly visible reminder of this.
The early records of the club were destroyed in a flood in the 1950s, but for a long time the club moved between various leagues until former player Jeff King became manager in 1992 when they were in the Essex Senior League. He has led the club through four promotions in the football pyramid and since rising to the top division of the Isthmian League they have now guaranteed a fifth promotion into the Nationwide Conference as well as winning the FA Trophy and repeatedly defeating higher-ranked teams in the FA Cup. King, who is also a hotel owner, and club chairman Ray Cross have promised a new stadium to replace Park Lane after Conference promotion although Park Lane does now meet Conference standards. In the 2003/2004 season they secured the league championship with seven games left to play after three straight second-place finishes and also reached the Trophy final.
In 2003 the club garnered some bad publicity when they abruptly banned former supporters' club chairman (and web-hosting entrepreneur) Ian Walmsley and his staff, who had run the successful unofficial website canveyfc.com for five years, from Park Lane unless they shut down their site, so as not to compete with the new official website canveyislandfc.com.
Honours
- FA Cup best season 3rd Round 2001-02
- FA Trophy winners 2000-01; runners-up 2003-04
- Isthmian League Premier Division champions 2003-04; runners-up 2000-01, 2001-02, 2002-03
- Isthmian League First Division champions 1998-99
- Isthmian League Second Division champions 1995-96, 1997-98
- Isthmian League Third Division runners-up 1994-95
- Essex Senior League champions 1986-87, 1992-93; runners-up 1978-79,
