Saunders Praises Margate Attitude

Margate Manager Jay Saunders says Saturday’s dramatic win over Horsham thanks to Lewis Knight’s 93rd minute goal shows the “attitude” of his players.

“Horsham broke well in the second half and as the game goes on longer you think, right ok we will have to take a point and move on, but to get the winner shows that the players have a great attitude and they didn’t want to give up”.

“Winning a game in the last minute is the best way to win a game, emotionally anyway but overall I was pleased we got the three points and other results around us went our way”.

Saunders was able to call upon Ben Bridle-Card again between the sticks after he returned from injury, and despite admitting it was “harsh” on Billy Johnson, he was pleased with the return of his number one.

“A clean sheet was a massive positive. It was great to have Ben back in goal and I was really pleased as that was his first clean-sheet since he joined the club”.

“I think to be honest both keepers played well. Like I say Horsham broke a few times in the second half and Ben made some crucial saves, so as harsh as the decision was on Billy, Ben has been our number one and he proved why on Saturday”.

After last week’s 4-0 defeat at Enfield, the Manager said he was “pleased” with the reaction he got from his defence.

“The back five if you include Ben in goal done really well. I needed a reaction from last Saturday at Enfield and I think we saw that against a really good striker in Shamir Fenelon, but we dealt with him really well”.

Despite being pleased that Knight secured the winning goal, his manager challenged him to add to his goal tally this season.

“For me, Knighty should be scoring more goals when you look at the size of him in the box but I am pleased he has come up with something at the end when it matters, and after a tough time at Enfield I am really pleased for him”.

The win on Saturday moved Margate to within seven points of the play-offs in the Isthmian Premier Division but Saunders wouldn’t be drawn on play-off speculation.

“It is always one game at a time. I spoke honestly at the start of the season about how we had a new squad and it would be interesting to see how we got on”.

“If you look over the past ten games or so we have been on a good run with a few defeats thrown in there, but generally it has been good but now we have to concentrate on what will be a difficult task at Leatherhead”.

“We won’t get too ahead ourselves, we know it will be a big ask to get in the play-offs, but all we can do is keep picking up points and see where that takes us,” he added.

Next up for Margate is a trip to relegation threatened Leatherhead, however with a new Manager at the helm, Saunders says he won’t let his players lose focus against a team scrapping for their survival.

“These players are ambitious and want to finish as high as they can. I said to them after Enfield that if we want to achieve anything this season we have to beat the teams around us and below us”.

“We go to Leatherhead on Tuesday night now which will be tough. The squad has options now and those players that came on against Horsham come into contention for Tuesday night”.

Speaking about his current squad depth, Saunders admitted that he feels now that the squad has the depth that allows him to mix things up.

“I am not going to lie at some points this season because of COIVID, injuries and suspensions I have looked at the bench and thought who can I turn to. I look at the squad now and we have enough depth to change things up”.

“We had Vance (Bola), Joe (Gbode), and Benas (Vaivada) on the bench but we still have Ken (Feyi) and Fyn (Rutherford), who I really rate so you can see we have options now”.

Margate continue their Isthmian Premier Division campaign on Tuesday night as they travel to Leatherhead.

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