Deal Town (H) - 5th December 2023

By David Hansen

Margate Women begin their campaign in the Combined Counties Cup as they play their first game of the season under the lights at Hartsdown Park against local rivals Deal Town.

Although both teams are local in Kent they play in separate divisions, with Deal Town playing in Division 1 East and Margate playing in the Premier Division of the South-Eastern Counties Women’s Football League. However, these teams have met in a clash as both teams started their pre-season campaigns.

The first pre-season match of the season Margate beat Deal Town 4-3 at Hartsdown Park in hot and muggy conditions. The game included a hat-trick from striker Paige Godden who will be hoping to repeat her good goal scoring form on Tuesday night.

Looking back at Deal Town's last three fixtures it doesn’t make good reading as they have suffered defeats in two of their last three matches. Starting with a 3-2 loss against Faversham Strike Force at home, followed by an exit in the Kent Women’s Plate against Tonbridge Angels after a 5-0 defet at the Longmead Stadium. Most recently they picked up a single point away against Sheppey United at Holm Park in the league.

Margate had their run of four games unbeaten in the league ended on Sunday afternoon as league leaders XL took a 3-1 victory in the cold and wet. However, before that Margate recorded two quality wins on the road 2-1 against London Road and Woodcoombe LFC to leave them 5th in their own league campaign.

Past Meeting:

Margate Women 4-3 Deal Town – Friendly - (08/07/23)

Goals: Paige Godden x3, Rhyanna Bailey x1

Team News:

Goalkeeper Jasmine Wood will be unavailable for the game this coming Tuesday and Jemma Barton remains side-lined as she continues her recovery from a knee injury.

Kick-off for the game at Hartsdown Park is 7:45pm with entrance next to the turnstiles and tickets costing £2 for adults and £1 for concessions.

Women Progress In Combined Counties Cup

By David Hansen

Tuesday evening saw Margate Women back to winning ways as they beat Kent rivals, Deal Town, 5-0 at Hartsdown Park and secure their place in the 3rd round of the competition.

Margate would begin the game perfectly when a ball out on the right was well collected by Esmee Kew-Stroud, and her shot was too powerful for the Keeper to save as it fell through her gloves and crossed the line to give the ‘Gate an early lead.

The strong start continued when Abbey Duff played a lovely Cross-field ball to Paige Godden, but she could only glance her header wide. Only moments later it was Kew-Stroud who was sent through and with her pace got away from the defenders before firing another shot into the back of the net.

There were a flurry of attacks on goal before Abbey Duff slipped JJ Speller down the left wing. Speller cut the ball back to Kew-Stroud who in turn rolled the ball off to the inverted Rebecca Niblett who fired a shot high into the net to make it 3 in the 25th minute.

Deal created their 1st chance of the game when a knockdown from a corner fell to the feet of former Margate player Sandra Nightingale, but her shot was scuffed and went wide of Greetham’s far post.

Margate were able to punish the missed opportunity of Deal when Kew-Stroud completed a first half hat-trick after being sent through again. She slid the ball past the keeper at the far post to mark fantastic evenings work from our number 16.

The break came for Deal who looked to regroup and go again in the 2nd half, but it was Margate who had another goal up their sleeve before the final whistle when Charlotte Scales took a good touch before lobbing an oncoming goalkeeper to complete a tidy night's work including a terrific clean sheet.

The final whistle blew a minute short of full time as an injury to a Deal winger left them short of players and unable to field 11 on the pitch.

 Margate’s victory sealed their spot in the next round of the Combined Counties Cup, keeping the team challenging for 3 different cups this season.

Margate are next back in action when they take on Sittingbourne in the SECWFL at Hartsdown Park on the 17th of December.

Lineup:

Greetham, Duff, Coltham-Lai, Kemp, Charman, Scales, Speller, Chapman ©, Godden, Kew-Stroud, Niblett.

Substitutes:

Harrington, Budd, Mann, Hall

Goals:

Kew-Stroud ‘4 ’20 ‘31

Niblett ‘25

 Scales ‘85