CANVEY Island have completed the shock swoop of giant striker Enoch Showunmi.

The 32-year-old Nigerian international joins the Gulls on a dual-registration deal from Conference South side Wealdstone and will go straight into their squad to play East Thurrock United tonight.

Showunmi, who is 6ft 5ins tall, has had an impressive career to date, and has played more than 300 games in the Football League for clubs including Bristol City, Leeds United, Tranmere Rovers and more recently Plymouth Argyle. He has scored more than 60 goals in that time.

He joined Wealdstone at the start of the season but now moves to Canvey after the departure of John Sands to Conference South side Chelmsford City.

And manager Danny Heale said his signing is a real coup for the club.

“He is a big name signing and a great addition,” said Heale. “He is a big presence up the top of the pitch and a big presence in the changing room as well.

“We have a young side and he will help guys like Ben Marlow and Dan King develop.

“He is a proven goalscorer and we look forward to his contribution.”

Canvey were due to take on Rocks on Saturday but, due to East Thurrock’s FA Trophy commitments, it was pushed back to tonight.

And Heale says his team need to overcome their poor recent record against the Gulls and record their first home win since mid October.

“East Thurrock United are our bogey team,” said Heale. “We always seem to struggle against them and we need to sort that out.

“We played them in the second game of the season and we were very unlucky to lose that match. We dominated the game and should have won but we need to learn from that and our recent defeats and come out fighting.”

The Gulls have only won one of their last seven homes matches, their last home triumph coming on October 18 against Harrow Borough.

Heale gave some of his returning first-team players a run-out in the reserves at the weekend, with Rio Bryan-Edwards, Charlie Barlow, Ashley Dumas, Harrison Tweddle and John-Joe Slater all getting much-needed minutes on the pitch.

And they may feature this evening.