We're going to give it our best shot - O'Connell

Thursday 01st April 2010

MARGATE boss Iain O’Connell has warned that bottom-of-the-table Bognor Regis Town must be respected when the two sides lock horns on Saturday, writes Stephen McCartney.

Margate climbed out of the Ryman Premier League relegation zone with a 2-1 victory at fellow strugglers Carshalton Athletic in midweek, stretching their unbeaten run to seven games.

But despite Bognor Regis Town not winning in any of their last four league games, O’Connell appreciates that this game will be tough as the Ryman Premier League is such an unpredictable division.

An example of this was when Margate (who were bottom of the table at the time) went to league leaders Dartford and turned them over at Princes Park.

“They’re a side everyone’s told me are a very good footballing side so that’s not going to be easy,” he told www.kentishfootball.co.uk.

“They need the win, they’re fighting for their lives. We’re all fighting for our lives. If you look at the bottom six or seven they’ve all got good results over the past four weeks so it’s not going to get easier. Everyone’s going to get results down there so we’ve just got to keep on going.

“When you look at how tight this league is, there’s teams there that were battling relegation, who are now on the verge of the play-off’s.

“Tonbridge Angels have put on a good run so it just shows you how tight the league is.

“Any game is a hard game. We’ve just got to keep going with the passion and the commitment and the belief that we had (at Carshalton) and we’ll be ok.”

Tommy Warrilow’s Tonbridge Angels side have won their last eight of nine games in an unbeaten run that has taken the Longmead Stadium club from 18th to fifth place.

“They are one of the strongest sides we’ve played so far under my reign,” O’Connell reflected on the 3-0 home defeat at the beginning of March.

“We’ve had a couple of players that I’ve brought in since then. Hopefully we can get a result there. We just have to go and get a result every game and go from there.

“At the end of the season if we’ve done our best and we’ve gone down we can’t moan. If we gave less than that then yes, but at the moment the boys have given me everything and I can’t complain.”

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

Margate v Bognor Regis Town

Ryman Premier League

Saturday 3rd April 2010

Kick Off 3:00pm

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