Margate joint-manager Steve Brown: Can we start on Saturday the way we finished on Wednesday?

MARGATE joint-manager Steve Brown says he’s expecting another tough fixture at Kingstonian tomorrow.

Injury-hit Margate came away from Merstham with a 1-1 draw on Wednesday night. 

Merstham were the better side during the first half and took a deserved lead 11 minutes before the break through Tayshan Hayden-Smith’s tap-in after goalkeeper Henry Newcombe parried Walter Figueira’s angled drive.

But Margate improved their performance levels after the interval and deservedly equalised in the 69^th minute through Liam Friend’s header after Frannie Collin’s deep cross.

Margate – with one defeat in seven league games – are in ninth-place in the Bostik Premier Division table with 22 points from 15 games and they travel to Tolworth to take on a Kingstonian side that are two places behind them on 21 points.

“It’s another tough away fixture,” said Brown.

“I hate talking about budgets and stuff but they are one of the front runners. 

“They are starting to recover from a poor start.  It looks on paper a much tougher game than it was in the first five or six games and all we can do is make sure those boys look after themselves from now until Saturday, recover in the right manner because it is going to be by and large the same 13 players that have to perform on Saturday.

“We’ve just got to keep them in the right frame of mind.

“For me, the Merstham game was a very good response second half. Can we actually get up to Kingstonian and get them to start in that manner? That will be the goal.  Can we start on Saturday the way we finished on Wednesday?”

Meanwhile, the club provided an update today on the injured players’ that are on the treatment table at Hartsdown Park.

Alex Brown is due to have his operation in January on his ACL which rules him out for the rest of the season.

Kane Haysman will begin his rehabilitation after his ACL operation but unfortunately won’t play this season.

Tom Wynter is currently in a boot for his ruptured Achilles and is waiting on another scan to see if he will require an operation or remain in a boot to help with healing. Tom will be out for at least 9 months and won’t play again this season.

James Rogers is booked for surgery on his medial knee ligament injury in early December. Until this procedure is complete, it is difficult to estimate how long his rehabilitation will take. We are hopeful - if all goes well - we could expect to see Rogo back with us the end of January.

Leroy Lita has been unavailable due to a broken hand. Leroy is waiting on a hospital appointment to change his hard plaster to a soft cast which will enable him to resume training. We hope Leroy may start training again next week.

Alex Flisher is continuing to make promising progress from his long-term injury. We monitor and manage Alex’s recovery as best as we can each week. We are sure you will agree that it was a real positive to see Flish score his first goal in a Margate shirt a couple of weeks ago.

That means Newcombe, 20, Jack Paxman, 20, George Brown, 20, Ben Swift, 21, Sidney Sollis, 19, Jordan Robins, 22 and Chris Barnard, 20, have all been given their chance at this level.

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

Kingstonian  v  Margate
Bostik Premier Division
Saturday 17 November 2018
Kick Off 3:00pm
at Kings Georges Field, Hook Rise South, Tolworth, Surrey KT6 7NA