DANNY Heale says his Canvey Island side were “naive” and “weak” after a 2-0 defeat at relegation-threatened AFC Hornchurch left them looking over their shoulders.

The Gulls went behind in the first-half to a George Purcell strike but played 50 minutes with a man advantage after goalkeeper Sam Mott was red-carded for a foul on Jack Simmons outside the box.

However, Canvey failed to score past Urchins captain Elliot Styles, who donned the keeper’s gloves, and even missed a penalty, when Jay Curran hit the post with a second half spot-kick.

To compound the Gulls misery, John Easterford was sent-off late on, his second red card in three matches.

And Heale says all of the players need to prove they are worthy of wearing the shirt for this weekend’s match with promotion-hopefuls Margate.

“It is hard to take,” he said, with Canvey now only eight points above the drop zone. “It is down to fine margins but we shouldn’t have lost this game. We didn’t create enough clear-cut chances and to miss the target with a penalty isn’t good enough. Jay Curran has scored his last 15 from the spot and no-one means to miss a penalty, so we just have to move past it.

“We were on a good run of eight games unbeaten and were unlucky to lose against Leatherhead last weekend.

“We have a tough run coming up so need to make sure we don’t end up looking over our shoulders again.”

The Gulls were missing Taylor Tombides, Mike Jones, Steven Smith, Kevin Dobinson, Ashley Dumas and Dave Collis for the Hornchurch trip, although all are expected to be back in contention on Saturday.

Former loanee Ben Marlow also played for Canvey against AFC Hornchurch, having been released by West Ham United.

Heale revealed the 19-year-old had been offered a professional deal at Queens Park Rangers, but had failed a medical due to a troublesome ankle injury.