DANNY Heale believes Canvey Island will beat Brentwood Town tonight if they match the levels they reached in Saturday’s defeat to AFC Hornchurch.

A goal in the last five minutes ensured leaders Hornchurch took all three points and extended their lead at the summit to 14 points over second placed Bowers & Pitsea.

The result was harsh on the Gulls who had been the better side for large periods.

And Canvey manager Heale is confident a similar display against Brentwood, who are in a relegation scrap towards the foot of the Isthmian North, will serve his team well.

“The same level of performance beats Brentwood without a shadow of a doubt,” said Heale. “We did well against Hornchurch but I can’t fault them and we gave them a run for their money.

“We have to dust ourselves down and go again tonight. I took the positives out of the Hornchurch game and there were plenty of those on Saturday.

“We are one of the best teams in this league and we can match anyone.

“We have a big run of games now that will decide what happens this season.

“There are 12 cup finals for this team but we must take each game as it comes and make sure we are where we want to be come the end of the season.”

Five of the top six are in action with Canvey strong favourites to take the points against a Brentwood team in desperate need of points.

Eight points above the drop zone and with games in hand, several more victories should be enough to keep them in the division.

And improved performances against the likes of Dulwich Hamlet, Dereham Town and Heybridge Swifts in recent weeks has fuelled the belief that Brentwood can enjoy a good end to the season.

Despite there only being six weeks of the season remaining this is the first time the two teams have met this season, due to postponements earlier in the campaign.

Brentwood knocked Canvey out of the Velocity Trophy in September.