Carshalton Athletic 1-2 Margate - That's the perfect response that we wanted, says Margate joint-manager Mike Sandmann

Carshalton Athletic 1 – 2 Margate
Location	War Memorial Sports Ground, Colston Avenue, Carshalton, Surrey SM5 2PW
Kickoff	01/10/2018 19:45

CARSHALTON ATHLETIC  1-2  MARGATE
Bostik Premier Division
Monday 1 October 2018
Stephen McCartney reports from Colston Avenue

MARGATE joint-manager Mike Sandmann says he got the perfect response from his team after bouncing back with a victory at Carshalton Athletic.

The Blues suffered a 1-0 home defeat to Haringey Borough at the weekend but they came away from Colston Avenue with all three points in the bag.

Peter Adeniyi’s side extended their winless run to six games in all competitions, sitting in fifteenth-place in the Bostik Premier Division table with nine points from as many games, while Margate climbed up six places to seventh with 13 points from the same number of games.

Both teams kept the ball on the deck and the game was played at a high-tempo, while all three goals came in the second half.

Frannie Collin gave Margate the lead by scoring from a free-kick from 19-yards, but Carshalton Athletic grabbed an equaliser through a clinically despatched penalty from left-back Jordan Cheadle.

Margate striker Joe Taylor joined Collin on five goals for the season as he kept his composure to win the game for the visitors with eight minutes remaining to end a run of three defeats (in all competitions) on the spin and send them level on points with fifth-placed Folkestone Invicta.

Injury-hit Margate were without Alex Brown, Kayne Haysman, James Rogers and Tom Wynter.

“Really pleased especially after Saturday’s disappointing defeat at home to Haringey when we didn’t perform very well and that’s the perfect response that we wanted,” said Sandmann, following his side’s fourth league win of the season.

“That’s the work-rate me and Brownie (Steve Brown) expect from the group and I thought there were some excellent performances tonight and as a group that looked more like us and hopefully we can build on that.

“We’ve got a good group, we’ve got some good players and Saturday wasn’t us and all of the players were disappointed not just us as the management team so it’s a perfect response and we were glad we had two days and we got that straight away.”

Carshalton Athletic created their first chance after only 196 seconds.

Adeniyi’s swept a first time 60-yard diagonal to release Ricky Korboa down the left channel and he cut the ball back for Michael Dixon to roll his shot from 16-yards into Henry Newcombe’s hands for a comfortable pick-up.

“I thought they started very well but for all of their play in the deeper areas they didn’t really cause too many problems,” said Sandmann.

“I thought we limited them to very few chances, first half especially.  They did start bright but I thought once they tried to move us and they didn’t get much success, we wanted them in the wide areas.  They didn’t carve us open to create chances and if you look at that first half you’d probably say we had the best chances.”

Taylor won the ball in midfield and charged forward down the right before playing the ball inside to Collin, who took a touch before drilling his right-footed shot over the crossbar from 25-yards.

Carshalton Athletic went close inside the opening nine minutes when Cheadle bent his left-footed free-kick around the wall and inches past the foot of the far post.

“The wall was that side and the wall’s done it’s job.  If you’re going to get that on target you’re going to hit the wall so as much as from afar that looks like a close chance, the wall was set up right and that doesn’t go in the bottom corner because it just hits the wall,” explained Sandmann.

Margate midfielder Lee Prescott played a diagonal pass out to right-winger George Brown, who beat the offside flag and held the ball up by the corner flag before waiting for support from Jordan Robins, who was given time and space to float in a cross which Collin rose on the edge of the six-yard box to head over.

“Another chance and then we started to compose ourselves into the game and started to create chances ourselves so it was really pleasing,” added Sandmann.

Margate played it around the back with centre-halves Liam Friend and Ben Swift building up play patiently before left-back Tom Mills played the ball up.  The ball should have been headed away by Robbins centre-half Danny Dudley but he played Taylor in and after digging the ball out from underneath his feet his shot deflected off Kalvin Morath-Gibbs and Billy Bishop made a low save on his knees.

Despite winning the corner-count by eight to two, Carshalton lacked the clinical touch in front of goal.

Midfielder Tommy Bradford swung in their fourth corner, which was powerfully punched away by Newcombe at the near post and the ball came out to Kornoa, who cracked a right-footed drive sailing harmlessly wide of the far post from 30-yards.

Carshalton Athletic created a good chance to open the scoring in the 38^th minute.

Adeniyi’s dinked a fine diagonal pass out to right-back Bobby Price, who was given space by Mills to whip in a cross towards the near post which was poked across goal by Korboa from six-yards out, forcing Newcombe to get down low to his right to hold.

Sandmann admitted:  “Not a massive chance, it’s one of them when you go they’ll be disappointed not to score.  They’re half-chances but in terms of the main chance in the game or the first half especially, I thought we had our fair share of them.”

Margate immediately went up the other end and struck the post just 71 seconds later.

Margate right-back Jack Paxman wriggled his way towards the by-line before cutting the ball back for Collin at the near post but the 31-year-old swept his shot against the base of the near post from six-yards.

“The best chance of the first half,” highlighted Sandmann.

“I’m really pleased with Fran, worked tirelessly as well and it was an excellent free-kick in the second half and I thought that was going in and it just went the other side of the post.  Luckily, second half he had his chance anyway.”

Price released Bradford down the right and he whipped in a cross towards the near post but striker Dixon planted his free header wide.

Margate finished the first half on the front foot but it certainly had a feel of the game that was going to be settled by just the one game at this stage of proceedings.

“I’ll be honest, so did I to a certain degree,” admitted Sandmann.

“At half-time I told the boys more of the same in terms of stopping them coming through the middle areas. They had some good movement, good rotation, they try and play a certain way and we wanted to force them into the wide areas and narrow up the pitch and on the turnover can we keep that first pass and go from there and I think we done that really well and we limited them to very few chances and once we got our goal I thought we were going to kick on. It wasn’t to be that way. We had to do it the hard way but the most important thing was to get three points.”

Margate took the lead with only six minutes and 22 seconds into the second half, courtesy of a quality strike from Collin after Prescott was tripped on the turn by Michael Aziaya on the very edge of the penalty area.

Collin stroked his right-footed free-kick from 19-yards over the wall and watched the ball sail across the keeper and clip the inside of the top of the far post before nestling into the back of the net.

“It’s a fantastic free-kick,” said Sandmann.

“Frannie’s got that, he’s got that ability and he’s had a couple of chances, a couple of shots and it hasn’t gone his way.  I’m really pleased. He worked tirelessly tonight and I’m really pleased that he got his reward.”

Carshalton Athletic missed a glorious chance to equalise when Cheadle released lively winger Korboa down the left and after turning Paxman he cut into the box and played the ball inside to put it on a plate for Bradford, who drilled his first time right-footed drive screaming just over the crossbar from 20-yards.

Carshalton Athletic grabbed an equaliser from the penalty spot, the goal timed at 15 minutes and 50 seconds.

Paxman’s clumsy tackle sent Bradford tumbling to the ground and referee Tristran Greaves pointed to the spot.

Cheadle drilled his left-footed penalty into the bottom left-hand corner, sending the Margate keeper the wrong way.

“I thought it’s disappointing, the goal that we conceded,” said Sandmann.

“Young Jack Paxman gives away a silly penalty but he’s 20 years old. It’s the first time (season) playing at this level and he’s going to learn from that but I thought up until we conceded the goal, I thought we were going to win by two or three.

“He’s not the tallest but certainly he’s a fighter, he’s very difficult to play against and he’ll learn from that, speaking to him after the game about it and he’ll certainly make sure he doesn’t do that again!

“Harry made a fantastic save on Saturday from a penalty so he went the same way as Saturday and it wasn’t to be.”

Carshalton Athletic went close again inside the final 20 minutes but this time Cheadle drilled his left-footed free-kick just past the foot of the right-hand post from 25-yards after Bradford won a free-kick following Swift’s foul in a central position.

Margate substitute Alex Flisher came on to launch three of his trademark long throws into the Carshalton penalty area. 

Carshalton cleared the danger and the ball came out to Robins, who floated in a cross from the left and Friend took a touch outside the box, turned and swept his left-footed shot straight at Bishop, who made a comfortable low save.

Sandmann revealed: “Do you know what? The funny thing about that if that’s training he scores! Friendy finishes for fun at training so as much as you go that’s probably the wrong man, you want it to fall to him and get a turn off because in training I’ve seen him score many of those goals so it was just unfortunate it didn’t fall for him.”

Collin squandered a glorious chance to score in the 82^nd minute.

Flisher launched a long throw from the left, Friend came up from the back to flick the ball on at the near post and Collin hooked his left-footed volley over the crossbar from eight-yards.

Sandmann added:  “I think he should score! Fran will be disappointed with that but it doesn’t matter now!

“We could’ve made the last five or ten minutes a little bit easier but he normally scores there so another very, very good chance.”

But Margate sealed a deserved victory with 37 minutes and 46 seconds on the clock.

A couple of Carshalton players failed to deal with Friend’s long ball over the top and Taylor kept composed to bring the ball under control before slotting the ball underneath Bishop to score from 12-yards.

Sandmann was full of praise for Taylor.

“Joe Taylor was excellent tonight and I’m really pleased he got his goal because he worked tirelessly and when it came into him he looked after it and linked up the play really well.

“Do you know what? Joe Taylor deserves that finish tonight. He worked tirelessly, he was excellent when it came into him. He was disappointed in himself on Saturday, as the rest of the players were and he’s responded really well tonight as they all have, so I’m really pleased because he’s a goalscorer that just wants to score goals, so he’s not smiling unless he’s scored and that’s really pleasing for us.”

Referee Tristan Greaves played eight minutes and 11 seconds of stoppage time, owing to the fact that Carshalton substitute striker Raheem Sterling-Parker was stretchered off through an injury.

Carshalton almost grabbed an equaliser when Bradford swung in their seventh corner of the night, Newcombe punched away and the ball fell to Cheadle, who from the edge of the D flashed his left-footed drive through a crowd of players and past the right-hand post.

Margate have only scored 11 goals in nine league games and Sandmann explained why his side aren’t free-scoring going into October.

“Goalscorers cost money! It’s been well-documented that we’re not in that position that we was last year in terms of finances, which is fine, so we’ve still got some good forward players that are hitting the ground running.

“Alex Flisher’s back out there tonight is excellent to see. He’s going to get fit and stronger and I’m sure he’s going to chip in and score some goals.

“Frannie Collin and Joe Taylor will still be disappointed not to score more and we’ve always said getting key players back, we’re going to become stronger.

“We’re missing some key experienced players, we’re very, very unfortunate with injuries and the young players have done really well tonight. We’ve got six or seven under 21s or under out there, which is fantastic for the club moving forward, fantastic for us. They’re young, hungry players but they will make mistakes. There will be performances where you need experienced heads – a bit like Saturday when it’s not falling for you and you just need to dig yourselves through the game but certainly if we can keep these young players and keep improving them, then the club’s going to be in good stead for the future.”

Harlow Town, who came away from Haringey Borough with a 2-0 win tonight, travel to Hartsdown Park this coming Saturday.

The Hawks are in the bottom three with seven points from nine games and Sandmann is keen to carry on their fight for promotion.

“We’ll be looking to build on tonight, this league is so tight, everybody is beating everybody and if we can put back-to-back wins together then we’ll be right up in the play-offs spots, where we want to be,” added Sandmann, who knows only four points separate Folkestone Invicta and sixteenth-placed Leatherhead.

“We wanted to be up the top, we want to be around the play-offs and we feel despite the injuries we’ve had – if we can get some of those boys back fit and we can keep the group that we’ve get together fit and playing well, then we feel we can be up there come the end of the season.”

Carshalton Athletic: Billy Bishop, Bobby Price, Jordan Cheadle, Peter Adeniyi (Jacob Mendy 80), Danny Dudley, Kalvin Morath-Gibbs, Michael Aziaya, Michael Onovwigun, Michael Dixon (Raheem Sterling-Parker 70, Jerson Dos Santos 90)), Tommy Bradford, Ricky Korboa.
Subs: Paris Hamilton-Downes, Daniel Pappoe

Goal: Jordan Cheadle 61 (penalty)

Booked: Bobby Price 77, Michael Aziaya 90

Margate: Henry Newcombe, Jack Paxman, Tom Mills, Jordan Robins, Liam Friend, Ben Swift, George Brown (Alex Flisher 59), Lee Prescott, Joe Taylor, Chris Barnard, Frannie Collin.
Subs: Owen Kallameier, Stephen Okoh, Sid Sollis, Reed Wilson

Goals: Frannie Collin 52, Joe Taylor 82

Booked: Lee Prescott 68, Joe Taylor 68

Attendance: 254
Referee: Mr Tristan Greaves (Godalming, Surrey)
Assistants: Mr Amadou Jallow (Brookwood, Surrey) & Mr Michael Taylor (Alton, Hampshire)