Bay Beat Blues

Margate fell to their first defeat of pre-season as they were beaten 2-1 by an organised Herne Bay side at the MBS Stadium on Friday evening.

The ‘Gate named just two trialists in the starting eleven as they looked to increase the player’s workload ahead of our Isthmian Premier Division opener against Whitehawk on Saturday 12th August 2023.

It was the Blues that started on the front foot as Phil Roberts was released through on goal, only to see his effort smack off the base of the post in the opening five minutes. Margate were looking positive and saw another effort from a trialist skim narrowly wide of the post.

Herne Bay took the lead in the 29th minute as former ‘Gate midfielder Archie Burrnett slid the ball through to Gil Carvalho who rounded Damian Niemczycki before firing the ball into an empty net.

The hosts were buoyed by the goal and almost doubled their lead as Harrison Pont headed a goalwards effort which went inches wide.

Herne Bay started the second half on the front foot as Carvalho ran through one on one before he was denied superbly by Niemczycki.

Despite the hosts positive start to the second half, Margate drew level with a fantastic team move as Harry Hudson collected the ball before spinning past his defender and calmly slotting past Josh Bexon to level the scores in the 55th minute.

With a constant amount of substitutes in the second half, the game fell into a bit of a lull until the 75th minute when Herne Bay were awarded a penalty after George Lamb mistimed his challenge in the box, giving the hosts the chance to re-take the lead.

After picking himself up from the challenge, Maagbe dusted himself down and slotted the penalty into the bottom corner to put the Bay back in front with a little under fifteen minutes remaining.

Harvey Smith almost rescued a draw for the Blues as he saw a last minute header go agonizingly wide of the post as Margate suffered their first defeat of pre-season.

We are back in action on Tuesday evening as we welcome National League South side Dartford to Hartsdown Park for a 7:45pm kick-off.

Tickets for this game can be purchased by clicking here.

Goalscorer

Harry Hudson 55’

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