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

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