Gate Seal Place In Next Round

Report by Tom Morris 

Margate progressed to the FA Trophy 2nd Qualifying Round after beating Barking FC 2-0 after 180 minutes in a reply at Hartsdown Park

After the wet and windy conditions in Essex last Saturday it was nice to be back on the AstroTurf for our FA Trophy replay against Barking FC. The players knew they had to get the job done at home in front of the home support and set about dominating possession and laying siege to the Barking penalty area. A couple of short corner routines resulted in decent crosses and half chances in the box before Jack Richards passed to Kadell Daniel who tried to beat the keeper with an outside of the boot shot but Montel Joseph was alert in goal and made a smart save.

On 15 minutes Kadell lined up a free kick from 22 yards and put his effort straight onto the post, it was the least telling of his first half set-pieces and a warning for Joseph as to what was to come. Minutes later Tupper started a lighting quick counter which saw Elliott Reeves burst into the box and see his scrambled effort cleared off the line, Ben Swift was next to go close heading over from a corner and everyone in HDP could sense a goal was coming for the home side.

We all thought that would come from Daniel in the 34th minutes as the ‘Gate were awarded a penalty for a clumsy tackle in the box, but Kadell managed to put his effort wide of the post. Thankfully this miss would not turn out to be costly as on the stroke of half time Adem Ramadan stole the ball and cut into the box from the left flank, he beat two markers and curled a delightful shot passwd the keeper and into the far corner of the goal, 1-0 Margate.

With the fans still celebrating and the clock ticking down, there was still time for Kadell Daniel to line up another free kick 25 yards from goal. Again, his effort struck the upright and bounced back into play where Elliott Reeves was on hand to expertly guide the ball past the keeper with his head, 2-0 Margate, it may have taken 135 minutes for us to score against a resilient Barking outfit but when the whistle blew for half time the players jogged back to the dressing room knowing the job was almost done.

Barking came out fighting in the second half, possession was more even, and they created a few half chances from corners and on the counter as both Junior Dadson and Sam Owusu showed good pace and a willingness to run the channels. Ricky Tarbard and Julien Anau collected yellow cards for late tackles and Michael Abnett replaced Jack Richards. Our best chance of the half came on 69 minutes as Chris Sessegnon collected a lose back pass and took out the keeper with his through ball to Elliott Reeves who stretched but couldn’t make the contact required to steer the ball into the empty net!

Barking once again threatened with a succession of corners but returning skipper Ben Swift marshalled his defence well and kept his second clean sheet since returning to first team action. The game finished with a double chance for a third goal as Ramadan had a curling effort saved before Sanusi had a shot from inside the box parried away. After 4 minutes of injury time the referee blew his whistle and we now play Tooting and Mitcham in the 2nd Qualifying Rd on November 9th at HDP.

Margate: Tupper, Sessegnon, Porter, Prestedge, Johnson, Swift ©, Richards (Abnett), Anau, Reeves (Sanusi), Daniel (Leighton), Ramadan

Subs: Holloway, Essuman, Hatfull.

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