Margate FC vs Three Bridges 1st

On a windy and rainy Tuesday evening in Kent, Three Bridges made the trip to Margate with renewed confidence on the back of their 4-0 win against Sevenoaks at the weekend.

Three Bridges started off as the better team for the first 10 minutes but were unable to convert their dominance into any clear-cut opportunities. Shortly after, the hosts started taking control of the game with Kai Garande on the left wing causing all sorts of troubles to Bridges defenders.

The first chance of the game arrived in the 16th minute for Margate when Ben Greenhalgh had a 25-yard attempt that went narrowly over. It was shortly followed by another attempt from the same Greenhalgh and then at the half hour mark, the excellent Garande finds Walsh on the edge of the box who manages to get a clean strike on goal but is denied by a wonderful save from Naythan Bryson. A moment of concern for Three Bridges as the powerful winger Reece Hallard went down with an injury in the 31st minute and despite his best efforts, had to leave the field 4 minutes later, being replaced by Hayden Velvick. Hallard was one of the best players for Three Bridges throughout the start of the season and we can only hope it’s nothing too serious.

Margate continued their dominant spell and in the 37th minute Ababio strikes the ball hard and low but young Bryson, having his 1st start of the season for Three Bridges in goal, is there once again to parry it away, followed by another attempt by Walsh that is comfortably saved.
As Bridges were looking like they survived the storm, in the additional minutes of the 1st half, Archie Burnett and Jamie Splatt fail to clear a ball on the left side resulting in an overload of Margate players, the ball arrived in the box where Ben Greenhalgh was all alone 10 yards out and his resulting strike gave Bridges keeper no chance. Margate took the lead right on the edge of half time and it was Margate 1 and Bridges 0 at the break.

2nd half started in the same manner, with Margate on top, however in the 48th minute Jamie Splatt had a great solo run that resulted in Three Bridges’ first shot on target, but Margate’s keeper Wray saves it comfortably. In the 61st minute, Kevin Rivera, who worked hard as always, wins a ball back in Margate’s half and quickly releases it to Archie Burnett, who plays a ball through down the left side towards Nodirbek Bobomurodov. Nodz is through 1 on 1 with Margate’s keeper who closes him down quickly and wins the ball, denying an equaliser for what was Bridges’ biggest chance of the game at this point. Less than 20 seconds later the ball arrives in the other box where Greenhalgh finds Brand but his header goes narrowly wide.

In the 69th minute of the game Greenhalgh plays a ball through to Olutade who forces Bryson into yet another outstanding save, however the ball rebounds back to Greenhalgh who could not miss and it was Margate 2, Three Bridges 0.

In an attempt to shake things up, Jamie Crellin made a substitution straight after conceding the 2nd goal, replacing Adam Adam with the energetic winger Bradley Campbell-Francis. However, it’s still Margate having the better of the game and it is only an outstanding goal line clearance by Kevin Rivera that prevents the hosts going three up.

Between this and the final whistle, the only moments of entertainment came from Bradley Campbell-Francis who impressed for Bridges once again, however his great runs on the right wing that resulted in some excellent crosses left everyone wondering where the Bridges attacking players are to meet these balls.

It ended in a well-deserved 2-0 win for Margate, who extended their unbeaten run in the league to 7, however the consensus among the Bridges faithful was that Three Bridges left with a loss on the scoreboard but won a keeper tonight as young Naythan Bryson shone in the goal throughout the 90 minutes.

Bridges Man of the Match – Naythan Bryson

			Home				Away				Total
			P	W	D	L	P	W	D	L	P	W	D	L	F	A	+/-	Pts
	1	Beckenham Town	4	3	0	1	6	4	1	1	10	7	1	2	27	14	+13	22
	2	Sheppey United	3	3	0	0	3	3	0	0	6	6	0	0	16	3	+13	18
	3	Sittingbourne	3	3	0	0	3	2	0	1	6	5	0	1	19	7	+12	15
	4	Ramsgate	3	3	0	0	2	2	0	0	5	5	0	0	15	4	+11	15
	5	Margate	4	2	2	0	3	2	1	0	7	4	3	0	10	4	+6	15
	6	Burgess Hill Town	4	3	0	1	3	2	0	1	7	5	0	2	14	10	+4	15
	7	Erith Town	4	2	1	1	5	2	1	2	9	4	2	3	19	12	+7	14
	8	Merstham	3	1	1	1	5	3	1	1	8	4	2	2	12	12	0	14
	9	Deal Town	5	2	0	3	3	2	0	1	8	4	0	4	19	16	+3	12
	10	Eastbourne Town	4	1	1	2	3	2	0	1	7	3	1	3	11	14	-3	10
	11	AFC Croydon Athletic	4	1	2	1	4	1	1	2	8	2	3	3	12	13	-1	9
	12	Broadbridge Heath	2	1	0	1	3	2	0	1	5	3	0	2	6	10	-4	9
	13	East Grinstead Town	4	1	0	3	4	1	2	1	8	2	2	4	10	12	-2	8
	14	Herne Bay	1	1	0	0	3	1	1	1	4	2	1	1	6	4	+2	7
	15	Sevenoaks Town	5	2	1	2	2	0	0	2	7	2	1	4	10	19	-9	7
	16	Three Bridges	4	0	1	3	4	1	2	1	8	1	3	4	13	15	-2	6
	17	Steyning Town Community	3	1	0	2	3	1	0	2	6	2	0	4	7	9	-2	6
	18	Hythe Town	4	2	0	2	5	0	0	5	9	2	0	7	6	23	-17	6
	19	Littlehampton Town	3	0	1	2	3	1	0	2	6	1	1	4	11	16	-5	4
	20	Lancing	5	1	0	4	3	0	1	2	8	1	1	6	7	13	-6	4
	21	Ashford United	1	0	1	0	3	0	1	2	4	0	2	2	6	12	-6	2
	22	Phoenix Sports	4	0	1	3	4	0	0	4	8	0	1	7	4	18	-14	1