Gate Squander Two Goal Lead

Margate squandered a two-goal lead to fall to defeat against Burgess Hill Town on Saturday afternoon.

Handed his first start for The Gate following a long road to recovery from an ACL injury, Alex Flisher opened the scoring with a strike from distance.

Flisher was influential in Margate’s second goal later on in the half, when his threatening throw in was touched by the Hills keeper on its way into the back of the net.

The visitors responded strongly despite going two behind with goalkeeper Henry Newcombe pulling off some smart saves to sustain Margate’s advantage.

Burgess Hill sliced the deficit in half when Pat Harding was the first to a rebounded effort in the six-yard area, on hand to smash the ball beyond Newcombe.

With a slender advantage, after the break, Margate enjoyed their best spell of the match producing attractive pockets of play.

Hill drew level with just over an hour played courtesy of a free-kick strike which beat Newcombe into the top-right hand corner. 

Frannie Collin produced a stinging free kick to test the Hill keeper but it was the visitors who had the final say of the day, pinching a late goal to take three points back to West Sussex. 

Andre McCollin ruthlessly volleying the ball after a corner was not effectively cleared.

Margate: Newcombe, Paxman, Mills, Robins, Friend, Swift, G Brown, Barnard (Prescott 66mins), Taylor, Collin, Flisher (Sollis 66mins; Maagbe 77mins)

Subs: Kallmeier, Brand.

Burgess Hill: James, Diallo, Cadman, Wilson, Richmond, Charman, McCollin, Harding, Pope (Bennett 72mins), Beck, Smith-Joseph (Richards 54mins); Subs: Watson, Franzen-Jones, Castanho.

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