Ten Goal Pre-Season Thriller

By Tom Morris

Margate made the short trip to Whitstable for our penultimate pre-season friendly, in wet and windy conditions it was a defender’s nightmare, as supporters from both sides had goals galore to cheer about.

Kick off was delayed by six minutes as the Whitstable ground staff made a few last minutes repairs to the netting in both goal, and after 10 minutes their DIY skills were put to the test as James Jeffrey latched onto a Dan Johnson through ball, raced away from his marker and finished coolly, putting the Gate 1 up.

As the light rain subsided and the floodlights came on the Gate scored twice more in quick succession. Firstly, in the 16th minute when Kadell Daniel picked up a cross come shot from Jeffrey and blasted the ball into the roof of the net, 2-0. Then in the 23rd minute Kudus Oyenuga dribbled past three Towners, cut inside the full back and passed the ball to Jordy Robins to curl home from the centre of the box, 3-0.

Two more goals followed in the next seven minutes; Kadell Daniel played a wicked pass with the outside of his boot to release James Jeffery who skilfully finished to make the score 4-0 before Whitstable pulled a goal back from a direct free-kick which evaded everyone in the box and tricked into the corner past an unsighted Jon Miles, 4-1.

Next came two goals in little more than a minute, Jordy Robins released Kudus Oyenuga who tricked the keeper and tapped home into an empty net and by the time this goal had been announced over the tannoy Kadell Daniel scored his second and Margate’s 6th goal in the 34th minute. This was the last notable actions of an emphatic first half as the referee’s whistle blew with the half time score 6-1.

The second half started with several changes for the Gate as Craig Holloway, Michael Abnett, Harrison Hatfull and Ben Swift replaced Johnson, Miles, Turay and Robins. Whitstable upped their game and the match became a lot tighter in the midfield with no clear-cut chances for either side, and by the 67th minute Jay had rung more changes as Ababio, Sessesgnon and Leighton replaced Oyenuga, Ramadan and Daniel.

The 70th minute saw Whitstable awarded a penalty and second half sub Aaron Milbank stepped up to score, 6-2. Milbank then saw a speculative long-range effort beat Holloway in the Gate goal 90 seconds later and the score was 6-3, the comeback was on!

The final action of note was another penalty to Whitstable with 6 minutes to go that was calmly slotted home by Milbank, completing his hattrick and giving the home fans something to cheer about, after less than 2 minutes of injury time the referee blew his whistle and the game finished Whitstable 4 – 6 Margate. 

Margate: Miles, Turay, Ashley, Ebazoeme, Johnson ©, Majoyegbe, Ramadan, Robins, Oyenuga, Jeffrey, Daniel

Subs: Holloway, Sessesgnon, Swift, Hatfull, Ababio, Abnett, Porter.

The Gate are next in action on Saturday 3rd August as we welcome Hythe Town to HDP for our final pre-season friendly. Purchase your ticket for that game here.

The Gate have hit 23 goals so far in pre-season friendlies so far and there is a tight battle between four players to be the top scorer! Check out our goals table below,

Player Goals

James Jeffrey 4

Noel Leighton 4

Kadell Daniel 4

Kudus Oyenuga 3

Jack Richards 2

Adem Ramadan 2

Jordy Robins 2

Michael Abnett 1

Connor Dymond 1

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