Gate Lose To In Form Ks

Tom Morris

Alex Flisher completes 90 minutes, but the Gate loses on the road to plucky Kingstonian.

At the home of Corinthian Casuals, in front of 334 supporters the Gate fought valiantly but were undone by the brilliance of Muhammadu Faal, losing 2-1 to Kingstonian.

Under the last rays of the late autumn sun both teams started brightly, there were corners at both ends well cleared and both sets of wingers looked dangerous on the counter-attack. 

There was a short break in play after 8 minutes as Chris Barnard required the physio after a clash of heads but thankfully was able to continue, the first save of note came in the 17th minute when Henry Newcombe parried a curling effort out of the box and easily caught the follow up effort.

The next 10-15 minutes were dominated by the Gate; two good crosses from Jack Paxman almost found their intended man in the penalty box and a free kick 20 yards out was driven into the wall by Alex Flisher, Chris Barnard dragged a shot wide from 22 yards before putting a header over the bar from Tom Mills cross. In the last few minutes of the half Kingstonian threatened as Muhammadu Faal broke down the left-hand channel and forced a corner, the resulting header was wide and after 1 minute of added time the referee brought the first half to a close. 0-0.

The K’s started the second half brightly with a succession of corners before a cross come shot from Alfie Doughty was headed across goal and fell kindly at the feet of Faal. The Gate defence were caught flat footed and his low shot from 10 yards beat Henry and nestled into the right side of the goal. 1-0 Kingstonian after 53 minutes.

After a scrappy 10 minutes with little goal mouth action the Gate replaced Jordy Robins with Joe Taylor in the 62nd minute to add extra threat to our attack, however a minutes later our supporters breathed a huge sigh of relief as Aaron Lamont blazed a half volley over the bar from 15 yards, almost 2-0.

With two up top for the gate the game opened up and both teams had a number of half chances and looked dangerous going forward. After a succession of misplaced final passes the gate broke through down the left-hand channel, Frannie Collin whipped in a cross that evaded the K’s defence and Flisher six yards out but fell kindly to George Brown to control and tap home his first Margate goal. 1-1 after 71 minutes.

Our celebrations were cut short as in the 78th minutes Muhammadu Faal picked up a loose ball in midfield and drove at the Gate defence, he slipped the ball through to Louie Theophanous whose first touch took him passed Henry Newcombe and he slotted the ball home, 2-1 Kingstonian.

The final few minutes saw the Gate throw everything at the Kingstonian defence, who stood firm and looked a constant threat on the counter, we fashioned a half chance from a corner but the experienced K’s players ran the clock down and nullified our attempts to get forward, the match was brought to a close after 5 minutes of injury time, 2-1 Kingstonian.

Our next match is at Hartsdown Park on Saturday 24th November against Bishops Stortford kick off is scheduled for 15:00.