margatevaldershot120803

Shots take points off Margate

Margate (0) 1 Aldershot Town (0) 2
McFlynn (84) Sills (52), D'sane (67)

Nationwide Conference (Tuesday 12 August 2003)
at The Hoverspeed Stadium, Dover
Attendance: 1,005
by Peter Guise

After the euphoria of an opening day point against mighty Shrewsbury Town, Margate were reminded of how tough this year's Conference campaign will be when they dropped all three points in their first "home" game of the season.

Still playing at the now newly named Hoverspeed Stadium in Dover whilst building delays on the new Hartsdown prolong the Gate's exile Chris Kinnear's side, strengthened by summer transfer acquisitions, promised much in the opening
twenty minutes, rallied excitingly in the last twenty minutes, but in between times succumbed to the steady, measured play of last term's Ryman League Champions.

Indeed, had Jean-Michel Sigerre not been guilty of a glaring miss in the tenth minute after good work from both McFlynn and Leberl then this good have been a very different match with Aldershot being slow to come out of the blocks. As it
was that miss may have been the catalyst for Shots to up their tempo. At times Aaron McLean left the Margate defence standing in his wake with his electrifying runs on the left and former Crystal Palace man, Roscoe D'sane, did likewise on
the right.

Both sides could have scored in the first half, John Keister shot straight at the keeper and Fiston Manuella almost put the visitors ahead before the break when his header brought a reaction save out of Phil Smith.

In the second forty-five, tempers flared, cards were flourished and the long awaited goals arrived. Seven minutes after the restart, Aldershot edged in front. Tim Sills latched on to the weakest of back headers from ex Dover man, Jake Leberl, rounded Smith and fired home in to an empty net.

Fifteen minutes later, Aldershot extended their lead when D'sane, engaged in some acrobatics, produced an overhead kick to squeeze the ball past Smith and the left hand post.

Then, perhaps out of frustration, came red cards to reduce both teams to ten men in separate incidents. Margate captain Graham Porter, up for a corner, appeared to have everything flailing as he clambered all over Manuella and was duly shown the way to the dressing room on 75. Six minutes later, Darren Annon broke through the Aldershot defence only to be pulled down by last man James Rodwell who was given the red card as a result. With six of the normal ninety minutes remaining Terry McFlynn grabbed a lifeline with a late equaliser, a superb individual goal of quality, but even with five
minutes of time added Margate could not pull back the deficit.

Margate: Smith, Oates, O'Connell (Clarke 87), Porter, Leberl, Annon, Keister (Stadhart 68), McFlynn, Saunders, Patmore, Sigerre.   Subs not used: Pulman, Abbott, Mitten.
Booked: Leberl (40), Keister (42), Annon (60).
Sent Off: Porter (75)

Aldershot Town: Bull, Hooper, Rodwell, Warburton, Sterling, Challinor, Roddis, Manuella, D'sane (Nutter 82), Sills, McLean (Harper 90). Subs not used: Gedling, Tanfield, Ashwood.
Booked: Roddis (29)
Sent Off: Rodwell (81)

Referee: P. Melin