'Gate Beaten By Hashtag Despite Late Fightback

By Riley Finch

Ben Greenhalgh’s late brace was not enough to salvage a precious point in Pitsea with the ‘Gate succumbing to a 4-2 defeat against Hashtag United.

With the score 4-0 to the hosts, Greenhalgh led the charge for a heroic, late comeback, collecting Kadell Daniel’s incisive pass, squeezing past two defenders and firing into the bottom corner for his first.

Just before the 80th minute mark, Ben’s dangerous delivery from the corner flag missed both sets of players in the box and curled all the way past the ‘keeper for his second. The goal marked Greenhalgh’s 50th for the Blues a massive achievement!

With just ten minutes left, Margate were playing their best football of the match creating dangerous chances to try and spark a late comeback. Despite the late dominance, Greenhalgh’s goals were simply not enough to undo the damage done in the first half.

The Tags ended the half 3-0 up scoring 12 minutes in after a quick breakaway allowed a Hashtag player to run in behind and square the ball to Misha Djemaili, who swept the ball into an empty net.

Nathan Smith quickly added a second after pouncing on a loose ball in the box from a dangerous corner, and would then score again from a corner in added time rising highest to head past Harry Seaden. The Home side would then go on to score their third corner of the match in similar style to Greenhalgh with Sakariya Hassan’s looping corner beating Seaden at his near post.

Set-pieces proved to be our undoing with the hosts scoring a hat-trick of corners and despite a strong second half performance, a 3-0 deficit was just too much to come back from.

It was a difficult afternoon for the ‘Gate both across the 90 minutes and before the game even began. We started the match without Captain Sam Blackman, who was out through suspension, and top scorer Steve Cawley, who suffered a hamstring injury earlier in the week.

Without Vinnie Bowman, who came off the bench to score last week, Greenhalgh was tasked with leading the line alongside Daniel and U23’s player, Mohammed Ahmed. Both Ahmed and fellow U23’s teammate Gabriel Duo would earn their senior debuts for the club in the league after featuring today.

The ‘Gates injury woes continued throughout the game with captain Harry Hudson forced to come off early in the first half after he tried to head a ball rifled towards him and suffered a head injury which forced him off the field. A nasty challenge on Tyrone Sterling also forced him to be substituted after a Hashtag player’s studs caught his thigh.

The conditions of all injuries are unclear at this point, but hopefully they will be fit in time for Margate’s next match against Cheshunt on Tuesday night.

Margate: 1. Harry Seaden, 2. Rio Davidson-Phipps, 3. Toby Stevenson, 4. Yaser Kasim, 5. Tyrone Sterling (Gabriel Duo 56’), 6. Harry Hudson (Lewis Knight 32’), 10. Kadell Daniel, 11. Ben Greenhalgh, 15. Mo Kamara, 16. Mohammed Ahmed (Fyn Rutherford 56'), 20. Teddy Perkins.

Unused subs: Dome-Bemwin, Hobbs.

Attendance: 209

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