Billericay Town (A) - 15th April 2023

By Josh Cole

The penultimate game of the 2022/23 season brings a trip to Essex as we face Billericay Town at New Lodge for the final away game of the season.

Last time out we suffered a narrow 1-0 defeat in the Kent Derby against Folkestone at Hartsdown Park on Bank Holiday Monday as Ibrahim Olutade scored the only goal of the game in the 12th minute from a corner.

After the game, Reece Prestedge was announced as permanent manager for the 23/24 season with Ben Greenhalgh as his assistant.

Billericay beat Bowers & Pitsea 3-2 in their last match despite being 3-0 up in 57 minutes before just scraping through the late Bowers comeback.

Margate hope to be able to call upon Sam Blackman after he suffered a dead leg in the defat at Haringey meaning he missed out on the derby day defeat to Folkestone. Prestedge has injury concerns over Phil Roberts, however Harry Hudson looks set to feature again making his return fully over the Easter weekend.

The ‘Gate and Billericay have faced eight times since 2013 with Margate winning two, Billericay winning four and two ending in draws. We have played against the opposition twice this season, playing them in the FA Trophy on the 8th October where Billericay won 2-0, and on the 2nd December we played in the league on Friday night at Hartsdown Park where the game ended 0-0.

Margate in their last five have lost three games to Aveley (0-1), Haringey Borough (1-0), and Folkestone (0-1), with a draw against Lewes (2-2) and a win against Hornchurch (2-3). Billericay have had slightly better fortunes than their counterparts through the last five games as they lost two games to Wingate (0-1) and Hornchurch (1-0), drew against Carshalton (1-1) and won two games against Bognor (0-1) and Bowers & Pitsea (3-2).

Not travelling to New Lodge with us? Stay tuned to our official twitter @margatefc_ for live match updates commencing from 2:15pm onwards!

Ground Address

Billericay Town Football Club

New Lodge

Blunts Wall Road

Billericay

Essex

CM12 9SA

Blues Humbled By Billericay

Margate suffered a 3-0 defeat in their final away game of the season as they were defeated by mid-table Billericay Town on Saturday afternoon.

The ‘Gate were on the back foot from the beginning as the hosts took a 12th minute lead after Anthony Jeffrey raced past Sinn’Kaye Christie before pulling the ball back to Bradley Stevenson who saw his deflected effort nestle in the net to give Billericay an early advantage.

It was a difficult start for Prestedge’s side as the hosts almost doubled their lead four minutes later as Stevenson saw the ball crash off the crossbar, moments before the hosts had the ball in the net, only for the linesman to cut short the home sides celebrations by raising the offside flag.

Nothing was going Margate’s way and they found themselves 2-0 down just after the 30th minute as Nathan Wood saw his pass cut out, allowing the ball to be slipped through to Alfie Cerulli who made no mistake to double Billericay’s advantage.

Half-time couldn’t come soon enough for the ‘Gate as they almost found themselves 3-0 down as Cerulli again smacked the crossbar with five minutes of the first half remaining.

Margate started much brighter initially as Harrison Hatfull and Freddie Barton combined to set up Ruben Soares-Junior, however he stumbled and the chance evaded the Blues.

With still over 30 minutes to play, the second half became very stop start with both sides receiving bookings as the game began to boil over, and despite half chances for Sam Blackman and Soares-Junior, Margate looked unlikely to get themselves firmly back into the game.

Any hope of a comeback was dashed in the 82nd minute as Toby Stevenson joined the score sheet as he put the game well beyond reach as Margate suffered another disappointing trip to the New Lodge.

A feisty final last ten minutes didn’t see any further goal scoring chances created as Margate fell to a disappointing 3-0 defeat which leaves them sat 17th in the Isthmian Premier Division.

MARGATE Xl: Jinadu, Hatfull, Kasim, Christie, Hudson, Blackman, Soares-Junior (Smith 86’), Wood (Rutherford 86’), Greenhalgh, Barton, Ojemen

Subs not used: Cole, Oke, Parkinson

Attendance

835