'Gate Suffer Relegation After Defeat To Billericay

By Riley Finch

Margate’s fight for survival ends in defeat after a 5-3 loss to Billericay Town at the New Lodge stadium confirmed our relegation from the Isthmian League Premier Division.

Billericay opened the scoring three minutes in through Alfie Cerulli, who swept home at the back-post after Tom Bender latched onto a long ball in behind and played a low ball across.

Steve Cawley would get the chance to produce a swift equaliser after a late challenge on Ben Greenhalgh earned us a penalty fifteen minutes in. Dan Wilks guessed the right way however, producing a heroic stop low to his right and Cawley was unable to get another clear shot on goal with the rebound.

The home side would make us pay for our missed chance after Bradley Stevenson latched on to a loose ball from Fyn Rutherford to slip in Moses Emmanuel. Emmanuel tried to slot past Harry Seaden, who saved brilliantly, but Ollie Peters was there to put it into an empty net, after latching onto the rebound.

From bad to worse, Richard Asamoah would then unleash a rocket from the edge of the box two minutes later, crashing against the underside of the crossbar and over the line to make it three.

Stevenson would make it four soon after, firing into the bottom corner of Seaden’s net.

Stevenson would net again in the second half after a clever flick put him through one-on-one with Seaden.

Mo Kamara latched onto the ball after Jeremiah Pinder rattled the crossbar to fire past Wilks to get one back for the ‘Gate.

Greenhalgh would also reduce the deficit after a long-range effort from just past the centre-circle soared past Wilks.

Substitute Vinnie Bowman stabbed home to add a third after latching on to a loose ball in the box deep into stoppage time.

Sadly, In the end they were merely a consolation.

The damage done in the first half was too much to come back from, and the final whistle put to bed a bad day at the office for The Blues.

Despite catching fine form towards the end of the season, where Margate amounted 14 points in eight games, it simply wasn’t enough to ensure our League safety.

Our best run of the season came at the very end, enough to keep us in the running for survival until the final day, consisting of four wins and two draws losing only to Champions Hornchurch and Billericay.

What seemed an insurmountable gap before we started the run was just reduced to three points on the final day.

Sadly, we gave ourselves too high a mountain to climb, and with Cheshunt picking up results in tandem with us, our relegation from the Isthmian League Premier Division was confirmed.

Margate XI: 1. Harry Seaden, 3. Toby Stevenson (Vinnie Bowman 63’), 6. Harry Hudson, 8. Gabriel Duo, 9. Steve Cawley (Kadell Daniel 64’), 11. Ben Greenhalgh, 12. Fyn Rutherford, 15. Mo Kamara (Jayden Boulton 78’), 18. Jeremiah Pinder, 19. Lewis Knight, 20. Teddy Perkins.

Unused Subs: 13. Reece Hobbs (GK), 17. Louie Atkins.

Goalscorers: Kamara (63’), Greenhalgh (83’), and Bowman (90+2’)

Attendance: 1,404

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