I want my players to show me what they're made off, says Butler

Wednesday 04th November 2009

MARK BUTLER says he is looking forward to taking charge of his first Margate game on Saturday, writes Stephen McCartney.

The 33-year-old, who hails from Aldershot, Hampshire, was officially unveiled as Terry Yorath’s successor on 23rd October, but Saturday’s game away to high-flying Hastings United will be his first as two games have been postponed due to their opponents’ cup commitments.

The former Ashford Town (Middlesex) boss has only seen his new side play once - as goals from Lloyd Blackman, Liam Harwood, Joe Healey (2) and Wayne Wilson saw a strong Margate side win 5-2 at Ramsgate in a Kent League Floodlight Trophy tie at Southwood Stadium last week, where Margate were given permission to field a first team squad for the reserve team fixture.

“I can’t wait for the game,” Butler said in his first interview with www.kentishfootball.co.uk today.

“We’ve worked with the players now for five or five sessions and we’ve got one more session to go and we just need to get into games.”

Butler, a salesman, knows all about results in his day-job - and wants his new side to impress him at The Pilot Field.

“What I’d like the boys to do is work really hard,” said Butler. “We’re drilling in a pattern of play with them so the first thing is can they graft for me, can they show me how much they want to win for Margate?

“I’m desperate to win, I’m sure they will. They’ve all taken on board what we’ve been doing in training so far so we need to do the bare minimum first, which is we work hard, we run hard and we play hard and then after that look for a little bit of quality on the top as well.

“It’s quite difficult to assess and see where we are because I’ve not seen them play lots of football.”

Butler revealed he is looking to strengthen the Margate squad in the forthcoming weeks.

“I think at this moment in time it’s fair to say Margate have got some contracted players and we need to look at what we’ve got first,” he said.

“Yes, I’d like to bring players in, I think it goes without saying, not massive amounts one or two to compliment what we’ve got, but we’ve got players at Margate already and what we really want to do first of all is look at what we’ve got and have a look, I think that’s fair.”

Butler’s first game in charge of the Thanet club cannot be harder - Hastings United are presently in second place in the Ryman Premier League table, although Tony Dolby’s side have lost three games at home.

Margate go into the game in sixteenth place in the table, with a record of four wins and two draws from their first 12 league outings and have collected the same number of points (seven) both at home and on the road.

“It’s a tough start away from home and we follow that up with Wealdstone. It will be a good test for my players and I’d get to see what they’re made off,” added Butler.

Visit Margate’s website: www.margate-fc.com

Hastings United v Margate

Ryman Premier League

Saturday 7th November 2009

Kick Off 3:00pm

At The Pilot Field, Elphinstone Road, Hastings, East Sussex TN34 2AX