Horsham (H) - 26th August 2022

By Josh Cole

Friday Night Football is back at Hartsdown park for the first time this season with the ‘Gate taking on Horsham in the Isthmian Premier Division.

Last time out, Margate suffered their first defeat of the season away at Brightlingsea Regent losing 2-1. Brightlingsea opened the scoring through striker Connor Barnby in the 43rd minute of the first half. Disaster struck again for the ‘Gate as Barnby grabbed his second in the 58th minute. Margate managed to pull a goal back in the latter stages of the game with Harry Hudson scoring in the 77th minute but the hosts survived to take the three points.

Andy Drury wasn’t happy following the game and had this to say after the match. “I’m really let down by the boys this afternoon to be quite honest, we’re trying to make sure they’ve got everything possible so they can put performances in and for the first 70 minutes I thought we were utterly woeful, we was standing off them, didn’t win headers, second balls, just so far off it I could’ve changed three people by the first 20 minutes, and they were lucky that I decided not to, last 20 minutes we had a go but it’s easy to have a go when you’re 2-0 down and you can’t lose so it’s not good enough”

The ‘Gate added Dartford Midfielder Cameron Brodie and former Cray Wanderers full-back Freddy Barton to their squad late on Thursday, but let Adam Topley and Emmanuel Oluwesemo leave the Club. Manager Andy Drury could also be without influential midfielder Ade Cole who is still struggling with a leg injury, which forced him off at Brightlingsea Regent after 48 minutes.

The previous result against Brightlingsea leaves Margate in 10th place on four points and our opponents, Horsham are 3rd on six points.

Horsham started the season off strongly winning the first two games against Canvey Island 3-1 and Corinthian casuals 5-0 but then lost their last game to Carshalton Athletic 3-1. A player to watch out for is Jack Mazzone who has four goals in three games, which includes a second half hat-trick in the 5-0 win over Corinthian Casuals.

The Blues will be looking for revenge for April’s 4-0 hammering in the Velocity Trophy, which saw the ‘Gate implode after reaching their first League Cup final in 24 years. In the league though, Margate have a slightly better recent record against their opposition tonight, especially at Hartsdown Park where the visitors have failed to win since 2009, with the Blues winning 3-0 in 2019 and 1-0 last season thanks to a late Lewis Knight winner.

Kick-off at Hartsdown Park is 7:45pm with turnstiles open ay 6:30pm. If you can’t join us tonight, then you can stay right up to date with the action over at our Twitter @margate_fc from 7:15pm.

Tickets for tonight can still be purchased by clicking here.

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