Margate boss Steven Watt: I’ve made my feelings well known about the fixture congestion and how it’s set up in this league and I don’t agree with it at all!

MARGATE manager Steven Watt says there’s too much football in the Bostik League for semi-professional footballers.

Margate moved up to third-place in the Premier Division table thanks to an eight-match unbeaten run and a 3-1 win at Kingstonian on Monday night.

Billericay Town moved to the summit following their 4-0 home win over Worthing 24 hours later and have collected 63 points from 24 games. 

Dulwich Hamlet are in second-place with 62 points from 30 games, followed by Margate (57 points from 31 games), Folkestone Invicta (53 points from 29) and Staines Town (52 points from 29).

Margate welcome nineteenth-placed Lowestoft Town to Hartsdown Park on Saturday and Watt said: “We’ll prepare for Saturday, it’s as simple as that! We’re eight unbeaten, we don’t sit to bask in glory of being eight unbeaten.  The job, we’ve done nothing yet! 

“We’ve just at the end of January in fixtures, now we look into our February batch of fixtures and look to prepare the team for Saturday and hopefully get another three points.

“It will be a tough game. There’s no easy games in this league.  I’m a firm believer in that. I’ve played in this League and I’ve been a part of it and just because a team is in the bottom half doesn’t mean they’re going to roll over and give you points.

“Look at Kingstonian.  I must give them credit. I thought they played very well on Monday night, being a man down at times.

“Teams aren’t going to roll over for you.  You’ve got to earn every win and that’s one thing our team is doing at the minute, going out and earning the points and hopefully we can continue that.”

Margate played nine games during January and face Lowestoft, Brightlingsea, Burgess Hill, Leiston and Needham Market this month.

“The amount of games we’ve had, that was our ninth game in January, which is an incredible amount of games,” said Watt.

“I’ve made my feelings well known about the fixture congestion and how it’s set up in this league.  I don’t agree with it at all!

“We’ve had something like a game every three days, which isn’t fair for everybody.  I’m sure there’s teams in other divisions (Heybridge Swifts in Bostik North) who have 12 games in hand on people, which is incredible!  It’s the level we’re at, it’s what’s needed but I’m just pleased the boys have turned performances into results.”

Visit Margate’s website:  www.margate-fc.co.uk

Margate  v  Lowestoft Town
Bostik Premier Division
Saturday 3 February 2018
Kick Off 3:00pm
at Hartsdown Park, Hartsdown Road, Margate, Kent CT9 5QZ