We couldn't compete with Tonbridge's offer for Harwood, says Butler

Thursday 12th November 2009

MARGATE manager Mark Butler says he wants good support from the Hartsdown Park faithful throughout his first home game in charge of the club.

Wealdstone, a side that were knocked out of the FA Cup by Rotherham United last Sunday, arrive in Thanet sitting in sixth place in the Ryman Premier League table, with 20 points from eleven games - just six points more than a Margate side that are fifth-from-bottom.

Butler’s first game in charge ended in a defeat at Hastings United last weekend, although the Blues booked their place into the third round of the Championship Manager Cup, courtesy of a 1-0 win at Ryman One North side VCD Athletic on Tuesday night.

“It’s great to get a win,” Butler told www.margate-fc.com. “I felt it was a worthy win. Maybe, we could have had a couple more goals. I thought we had a blatant penalty in the first half and I was a bit disappointed we didn’t get on the end of some of Wayne Wilson’s fantastic deliveries.

The match at Oakwood was also an opportunity for the new manager to take a look at a number of players, who for one reason or another, have not featured recently.

Butler has won this competition in the past with his former club, Ashford Town (Middlesex), and his intentions are to try and make good progress in this year’s competition with Margate.

The 33-year-old also reiterated his intention to play as much good football as the situation, conditions and opposition allow.

The first half against Hastings and the game against VCD at times showed Margate’s passing game coming together.

“It is what we’re going to try and do,” he said. “It is the way forward, it’s what we want and hopefully you guys will like watching it and hopefully (we) will reap the benefits of (good) results.”

Tonbridge Angels have tonight confirmed that big central defender, Liam Harwood, has agreed a contract to the end of the season at the Longmead Stadium club, having left Margate earlier in the week.

“Liam’s signature was obtained despite him receiving some good offers from other clubs,” said Tonbridge Angels’ secretary Charlie Cole.

The Angels secretary also confirmed news on more defenders at the west Kent club.

Marc Cumberbatch (who played for both Staines Town and Hendon earlier in the season) has agreed to remain with the club until the end of the season.

Scott Gooding is back in light training and will soon be fit enough to start full training, whilst former Ramsgate defender, Nick Davies, who has yet played for the club, is still not responding to treatment and may need to go under the knife to repair his injury.

Back to Margate, Ben Lewis is reported to have left Hartsdown Park this week, as Butler re-jigs his squad.

Butler, meanwhile, spoke about former Carshalton Athletic defender Harwood leaving his club.

“We knew that an approach had been made for Liam,” he said. “Liam Harwood has been treated very, very well by Margate Football Club, both in the past and this week.

“We put a good offer on the table for Liam, unfortunately that offer wasn’t as much as Tonbridge, and Liam has chosen to leave.”

He added, “If somebody doesn’t want to play for Margate, then they’re really not worth having around.

“Whilst I don’t have a problem with Liam - I wish him all the best - he did choose ultimately that he didn’t want to play for us, so we draw a line under it - he’s gone - and we’ll deal with it.”

And looking positively at Harwood’s departure, the manager confirmed that he will be looking to use the freed up budget to strengthen the squad.

Looking ahead to the visit of Wealdstone on Saturday, Butler added, “I can’t wait. Let’s have a bumper crowd and give us a bit of a cheer. It’ll be tough Wealdstone - I know Gordon Bartlett very well – if we can all get behind the team then we can see if we can get something form the game.”

Butler will be looking carefully at the centre of defence and the question is who to bring in to replace Harwood, the options being Luke Wheatley – who has just returned from his loan spell at Ramsgate – or John Keister.

The boss may prefer the experience of Keister ahead of Wheatley which should open up a starting berth for Kieran Morris in midfield; his first in the league since 18th August.

Dan Young is training again but is two weeks away from a return to match action. Roberto Corbishley’s come-back looks to have stalled after being withdrawn through injury 31 minutes into the VCD game, while Akwasi Edusei could be a doubt after also being forced off through injury in the opening half on Tuesday.

Wealdstone have already beaten Gate once this season; 3-1 in the FA Trophy a month ago, and are in good league form having dropped just four from 18 points in their last six games.

But, the Stones will be looking to recover quickly from last week’s FA Cup exploits when they went out of the competition by the odd goal in five against Rotherham United.

www.kentishfootball.co.uk will be covering this game, with Paul Parkinson reporting from Hartsdown Park

Quotes, part of the article, courtesy of www.margate-fc.com

Margate v Wealdstone

Ryman Premier League

Saturday 14th November 2009

Kick Off 3:00pm

At Hartsdown Park, Hartsdown Road, Margate, Kent CT9 5QZ