Stortford Sting Gate At HDP

The Gate were comprehensively beaten by Bishop’s Stortford at Hartsdown Park on Saturday afternoon.

Margate started brightly and took the lead after some industrious work by loan signing Tom Murphy crafted an opportunity which George Brown finished in style. The young winger clinical with the opportunity, slotted the ball home. 

Luke Callander drew Bishop’s level making the most of a delightful flick-on to smash the ball beyond Henry Newcombe in the Margate goal.

Just minutes later the visitors had the lead when Ryan Charles showed great composure, after a long ball forwards was chested down into his path by Jamie Cureton.

Margate almost mustered the perfect response before the break, a searching throw in by Alex Flisher found centre-back Ben Swift, but the defender’s header flew over the bar.

Cureton was involved in Stortford’s third goal which came in the second half, capitalising on a defensive miscommunication to slide the ball home.

Whilst Margate enjoyed good chunks of possession on the ball, a handful of clear opportunities were manufactured from set piece opportunities, including a testing corner from Frannie Collin which was almost headed on target by captain Liam Friend.

Friend almost turned provider from another corner minutes later, finding the feet of Murphy with a glancing header but Margate’s new-man saw his powerful shot go wide.

As Margate continued to chase a way back into the game, Flisher came close as he cut around his marker to manoeuvre space to get a shot away, the effort deflecting past the post.  

Despite Margate’s best-efforts, a professional away performance was further enhanced when Cureton grabbed his brace on the 87th minute.

An unfortunate error from Margate, ruthlessly seized upon by the in-form striker whose job was simply to tap into an empty net.

The Gate will hope to do better as they begin their December batch of fixtures away at Potters Bar this Saturday.

Margate: Newcombe,Paxman, Mills, Prescott (Lita), Friend ©, Swift, Brown, Barnard, Flisher, Collin (Taylor), Murphy (Robins)

Subs: Kallimiere, Costa Sani