CANVEY Island manager Mark Bentley was keen to avoid being too negative following Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to Aveley.

The Gulls went into the Bostik North clash unbeaten in their last five outings.

But Bentley has now called on his side to get another good run going.

“Obviously it was disappointing to lose but we had been on a good run and I don’t want to be too negative,” said the former Southend United midfielder.

“It was one defeat in six and five unbeaten before the weekend so I told the players at the end of the game that we had to get on another good run now.

“I don’t want our season fizzling out and there’s nothing to play for during the last couple of months so let’s try and go unbeaten for six games or so and see where it takes us.

“It’s a funny league where you can make progress quite quickly so that has to be our aim, starting with a win at Wakering on Tuesday now.”

However, Bentley felt Canvey should be going into that clash with their unbeaten run still in tact.

“I think maybe in hindsight a draw would’ve been a fair result,” said Bentley.

“We started well but then we stopped doing what we had been doing to get the good results.

“Aveley got back into it and then got a winner towards the end which was obviously disappointing from our point of view.”

Canvey, who are seventh in the standings, opened the scoring after just six minutes with James White on target.

But Aveley hit back to triumph with two goals from Alex Akrofi, the second of which came three minutes from time.