CANVEY Island will welcome a favourite footballing son back to Park Lane tonight – and will hope to see him leave with a good beating.

Mario Noto, once on Tottenham Hotspur’s books as a youngster and a regular for much of Gulls’ two years in what was then the Nationwide Conference, is now with Boreham Wood who the Islanders meet this evening (7.45pm kick-off).

John Batch’s hosts are in a reich vein of form at the moment and followed up the previous week’s 5-2 home hammering of Hastings with a crucial 2-2 draw at fellow promotion rivals Carshalton Athletic on Saturday.

In stark contrast, tonight’s Hertfordshire visitors are in danger of fading out of the battle to gain a place in next season’s Blue Square South after picking up only a point in their last three games.

Gulls are just a place outside the play-offs on level points but with an inferior goal difference to a Maidstone team immediately above them.

But tonight’s visitors are not yet ready to be written off and, although ninth, are only four points behind Gulls with two games in hand.

Very much in Canvey’s favour is the fact that, with 35 goals, they’re by far the highest scorers in the whole division – Tonbridge Angels being the nearest to them oin 32.

That’s despite the fact that top goal star Jay Curran is currently out of the side and will miss the third match of a four-game ban this evening.

But defender Chris Moore is available again after completing a one-match suspension.