CANVEY Island ended a run of four successive defeats with a 14-10 victory at Ilford Wanderers.

The win kept Canvey 10th in the London Three Essex standings.

And the Islanders’ Mike Litorus was happy to see the side get back to winning ways.

“The lads deserved the hard fought victory,” said Litorus.

“Both the forwards and backs played with a lot of heart and never took a step back in defence, particularly in that last 10 minutes.

“It was heart-stopping stuff.”

Ilford opened the scoring with a well-struck penalty on the half hour mark.

But the Islanders hit back almost immediately when some excellent play between forwards and backs resulted in number eight Harry Atkins touching down.

Charlie Clarke added the conversion to make it 7-3 at half-time.

But the second half was much of the same with both sides looking to break the opposition’s defence.

However, it was the Islanders that struck first when, after a series of scrums in the Ilford five metre area, the back row picked up and drove forward.

With the Ilford defence holding firm, Canvey’s scrum half Clarke found a gap to touch down for a try he was also able to convert to make it 14-3.

With time running out, Ilford threw everything at Canvey and were rewarded with a try of their own to move to within three points of the visitors.

But the Islanders hung on to secure the win.