Blues Through To Face Bath City

Margate safely secured their passage into the 3rd qualifying round of this seasons Buildbase FA Trophy with a 2-0 win at home to Egham Town on Saturday afternoon at Hartsdown Park.

The Blues had waited 14 days for the fixture after Bowers & Pitsea (our original opponents) were removed from the competition after fielding a suspended player against Egham in their original 1st qualifying round game in October.

Blues boss Steve Watt named a strong starting eleven with Patrick Lee continuing in goal whilst a Frannie Collin and Jay May led the front line for Margate against an Egham side who conceded six goals in their two previous game leading up to Saturday.

Whilst the performance from Margate was relatively simple, they certainly didn’t have it all their own way thanks to Aaron Bufton in the visitor’s goal whose performance was sensational. It was Kane Haysman who drew the first incredible save as his bullet header from six yards out was somehow clawed away by Bufton before crossing the line.

Margate were failing to create many chances and the Egham Town back line would have been pleased to have kept the Blues at bay for the opening 45 minutes with the scores level at half-time. Margate switched through the gears in the second half as firstly Haysman saw another show test Bufton before Lee Prescott saw a fierce effort skim the crossbar.

It was the turn of Bufton to wow the 370 strong crowd as he superbly denied Haysman from long range again before kicking the ball clear just as Jordan Chiedozie was about to tap home from close range. The Blues finally got the goal that they deserved on 65 minutes as Frannie Collin unleashed a pile driver of a free kick which swerved away from Bufton into the bottom corner.

1-0 became 2-0 just five minutes later as Collin slammed home another to put the tie to bed with 20 minutes remaining. There was still time for Bufton to superbly deny Chiedozie and Collin again as he stole the show but Margate secured a 400 mile round trip to Bath City on Tuesday evening in the 3rd qualifying round of the Buildbase FA Trophy.

MARGATE: Lee, Evans, Mills, Rogers (Brown (75’), Wynter, Swift, Haysman, Prescott, May (Enver-Marum 75’), Collin, Bodkin (Chiedozie 60’)

Subs Not Used: Friend, Martin

Attendance: 370

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