Canterbury City (H)- 11th July 2023

Written by Josh Cole

Margate continue their pre-season schedule as we face our tenants, Canterbury City, for our second pre-season friendly in preparation for the 2023/24 Isthmian Premier Division season!

Margate started their pre-season campaign with an exciting 3-3 draw at home to Deal Town, despite being 2-0 down in the first half. Margate named two line-ups, a first half XI and a second half XI including first teamers and trialists. Reece Prestedge’s side improved after the second half with a trialist, Steve Cawley and Ben Greenhalgh all scoring, however a third goal of the game in the second half for the visitors meant the game finished level.

Margate manager Prestedge said this in his post-match interview that results at this stage are not important.

 “I’m not fussed about the result, it’s more about minutes into people and just showing glimpses of what we are capable of doing and what players we have brought in, showing it to the fans for the first couple of games.”

Watch the full interview here.

Canterbury City have already played three pre-season games so far where they faced Maidstone U23’s at Hartsdown Park running out 4-1 victors followed by two away games against Ramsgate (7-2 loss) and the most recent fixture against Herne Bay, where they lost 5-0 on Saturday afternoon. Canterbury play in the SCEFL First Division after getting relegated from the SCEFL Premier Division last season, currently three leagues below the Blues.

Kick off is 7:45pm with turnstiles opening at 6:30pm and you can purchase your ticket by clicking here or upon arrival at Hartsdown Park. .

Blues Ease To Pre-Season Win

Margate strolled to their first pre-season win of the 2023/24 campaign on Tuesday evening as they beat Canterbury City 4-0 at Hartsdown Park.

Manager Reece Prestedge again opted to name two different sides for each half. Margate fans got to see several trialists in the first half, alongside captain Sam Blackman, striker Steve Cawley, attacker Phil Roberts, full-back Harrison Hatfull and promising winger Rory Sutcliffe.

It took the Blues just two minutes to take the lead as George Lamb poked home a corner to give the ‘Gate an early advantage. 1-0 soon became 2-0 as Sutcliffe set off on a solo run before drilling a low left footed shot home in the 9th minute.

With plenty of trialists looking to impress, the half saw only a handful of chances as Cawley almost added to his goal from Saturday, however his effort went inches wide.

Blues fans got to see regulars Damian Niemczycki, Tyrone Sterling, Archie Johnson, Harry Hudson, Ben Greenhalgh, Harvey Smith on show in the second half and it took just two minutes for Smith to bag his first of pre-season with a precision header from a Greenhalgh cross as Margate led 3-0.

A Blues trialist forced the Canterbury keeper into a fine save as the ‘Gate looked to press further ahead, however they had to wait until the 90th minute as Smith again delivered a beautiful volley to give Margate a dominant 4-0 win.

Goalscorers 

Lamb 2' 

Sutcliffe 9' 

Smith 47' 

Smith 90'

Margate continue their pre-season schedule with a trip to Herne Bay on Friday evening, before welcoming National League South side Dartford to Hartsdown Park on Tuesday 18th July with kick-off at 7:45pm.

Tickets for this game are available online by clicking here.