'Gate Lose Late On To Dover

By Josh Cole

Margate’s second pre-season friendly ended in a narrow 1-2 defeat to Dover Athletic at Hartsdown Park.

The visitors opened the scoring in the 58th minute after Reece Hobbs punched the ball to the edge of the box, where number 17 rifled a shot into the net.

Just six minutes later, Ibrahim Olutade would get a goal after Hatfull’s cross from the right-hand side was dropped into his lap, and he smashed the ball into the corner of the net!

With only four minutes to go, a goalmouth scramble ended up with big centre half, Gyebi, poking the ball into an empty net to give Dover the lead and the win.

The ‘Gate started very brightly when Hatfull was brought down in the box and won a penalty inside five minutes.

Greenhalgh stepped up but his effort was saved, and unfortunately Lukas Franzen-Jones just steered the rebound wide.

The Blues continued to dominate proceedings with midfielder Brandon Davey being at the heart of all good things the home side would produce.

After the first 20 minutes, Dover would grab a foothold in the game and start creating chances but none of which would get past Hobbs in goal.

The first half ended goalless but lots of chances going both ways and a good display of football from both teams.

For the second half, Margate’s team changed, and with it, the rhythm from the first half wasn’t there, and Dover started to dominate early on.

In the 58th minute, the visitors got their reward. Goalkeeper, Reece Hobbs, managed to punch away a corner to the edge of the box but a well-struck effort from Dover’s number 17 found the back of the net.

Margate would respond perfectly grabbing a goal just six minutes later. Greenhalgh and Hatfull linked up well down the right-hand side and the resulting cross form the ‘Gate’s right back would be dropped by the ‘keeper, falling to the feet of Olutade, who drove the ball home to make it 1-1.

Both teams continued to create chances but neither team would take them, until the 86th minute.

A corner caused problems in the box for Margate and a hectic goalmouth scramble saw Gyebi stab the ball home into the empty net giving Dover the lead and the win.

Player/manager, Ben Greenhalgh, reacted to the game and performance:

"It was a brilliant test for us, Dover put on a really good non-league performance, they were big, physical and that's good as that's what most of non-league is about, and for us to learn to play against a team in the league above who are well drilled and know what they are doing, it was a good test."

"It was a very even game, the two goals they've scored have come from mistakes at set pieces, which is acceptable right now because we haven't worked initially on how to deal with everything, we haven't got our man eleven on the pitch, meaning we may have smaller player on, so that is something we can work on because it won't be acceptable come the start of the season."

Margate's 1st half team: 13. Reece Hobbs, 2. Harrison Hatfull, 3. Ross Craig, 6. Harry Hudson ©, 7. Jordon Ababio, 9. Lukas Franzen-Jones, 10. Ibrahim Olutade, 11. Ben Greenhalgh, 14. Brandon Davey, 15. Trialist A, 17. Trialist B.

Margate's 2nd half team: 13. Reece Hobbs (Alfie Langford 70’), 2. Harrison Hatfull, 4. Harvey Brand, 5. Tyrone Sterling, 8. Fyn Rutherford, 10. Ibrahim Olutade (Trialist D 70’), 11. Ben Greenhalgh (Louie Hoxha 70’), 16. Trialist C, 17. Trialist A, 18. Vinnie Bowman, 20. James Bessey-Saldanha.

Goalscorer: Ibrahim Olutade (64’)

Margate Media’s Player Of The Match: Brandon Davey

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