Young Blues Secure Place in 2nd Qualifying Round of FA Youth Cup

Report by Ant Coombes

After a tepid opening ten minutes, it was largely one way traffic for the remainder of the game - with the visitors clearly surprised with the change of system and personnel for Jay Stubberfield, with the U18's falling to a 5-1 defeat in the reverse fixture in the league just 4 days earlier.

The first effort on goal came as Margate began to take control of the match, and Ziyad Ghali saw his 25 yard effort clip the bar with visiting 'keeper Mark Sitton well beaten. Jack Fenton was the next to try his luck, but his strike deflected off a blue shirt and wide for a goal kick. Some good football was on display from the home side, and when the cross came in across the face of goal from the left hand side, Harvey Killick was unfortunate to see his sliding effort saved by Sitton.

The two sides were largely cancelling each other out in the middle of the pitch after this, and it took until the 25th minute for Sitton to be called into action again, doing well to tip away a vicious cross from Ikeije after some good build up play from Jardell Conteh.

Hollands and Blair did manage to get forward on the half hour mark, and 'Gate were grateful to the reactions of Lewis Mitchell who got down well to his right to tip the ball wide for a corner. Shortly after this, the hosts were perhaps fortunate to escape a penalty appeal, which was waved away by the referee, who it has to be said was probably in the best place to have seen the incident clearly.

This spell of attacking intent didn't last long, and Margate were soon in the ascendancy again, and the deadlock was finally broken in the 36th minute, when Henry Ikeije was left unmarked to head home from close range with Sitton given no chance.

There was a nervous end of the first half, with Joe Jarvis and Jordan Fraser both firing wide from distance, and Hollands and Blair were nearly gifted an equaliser when Tyler Dockwray's casual ball accross defence was intercepted, and he would have been incredibly grateful to Olly Baker - back in his familiar defensive role - for winning the ball back and preventing the striker going clean through.

Half Time: Margate U18s 1-0 Hollands and Blair U18s

Although Fraser again had a strike from distance, this was followed by a spell of total dominance from Margate. Blair had no answer when 'Gate were able to get the ball down, and after a free-flowing move, Adekunie Bakare was denied by Sitton. This was the first of 3 Bakare efforts in as many minutes, with 2 efforts from distance going wide. Ghali was the next to try from distance, but his effort flew narrowly over the bar.

There was an injury worry for Margate when Jack Fenton hobbled off in the 56th minute after a strong challenge. Fenton had only passed a fitness test an hour before the game but had controlled the game in the middle.

Bakare tried his luck again on the hour, before Harrison Hume - on for Fenton - saw his rasping 20 yard drive fly fractionally over the bar as Margate continued to dominate.

Bakare finally got his name on the scoresheet in the 64th minute, keeping his composure from 10 yards to beat the 'keeper low to his right, with the visiting defence furious for the officials for the lack of offside decision - for the untrained eye it looked as though they may have had a point!

Blair had the ball in the net 7 minutes later, but again the officials were against them, as the flag went up to deny a fine glancing header which left Mitchell with no chance - although there were no complaints this time with the striker clearly offside.

Josh Richards was impressing after coming off the bench again, and was unfortunate not to get on the scoresheet again. He perhaps should have done better, heading wide when well placed - and later with a whipped cross/shot which was swung in from the left and flew marginally wide of the far post.

The midfield - so influential in the majority of the game, was being bypassed in the final quarter of an hour - by both sides, for different reasons. Blair resorting to long balls to try and get themselves back into the game, and 'Gate, happy to get the ball away and break with the visitors committing men forward. One such long ball found it's way over the defence, and Mitchell had to be alert to race out of his box and head the ball clear.

It really should have been 3-0 in injury time, with 2 decent chances missed from close range...before Bakare got his second to kill the game off, and send Margate U18s into the next round, where they face a trip to their Greenwich Borough counterparts.

Stubberfield's U23s are back in action on Tuesday at Hartsdown Park (7:45pm), where they face Ashford United in the Kent Intermediate Cup - before they head to Greenwich Borough on Thursday in a league game which doubles up as a dress rehearsal for the cup clash which is set to take place the following week. Details will follow on this site when we have them confirmed.

Margate U18s: Lewis Mitchell, Harvey Killick, Tyler Dockwray, Nathan Hulett, Olly Baker, Jack Bray, Ziyed Ghali, Jack Fenton, Adekunie Bakare, Henry Ikeije, Jardell Conteh.

Subs: Harrison Hume, Tom Webster, Will Price, Riley Mallon, Josh Richards

Goals: Ikeije, Bakare (2)

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