‘You’ve got to give them credit’

Margate player-boss Ben Greenhalgh admitted the difference was in both penalty areas during their play-off semi-final defeat. The Gate lost 2-0 at Burgess Hill on Tuesday night despite looking the better side for the opening hour. But a deflected opening goal followed by a lovely crafted second from the hosts on 63 minutes saw Margate’s season come to an end in Sussex.

It was a case of two shots, two goals, for the hosts, and Greenhalgh responded: “This is what they do to us, Burgess Hill, and you've got to give teams credit for that. “They play good football, they keep possession, but I didn't feel that anything was threatening the goal. But as soon as you lose a runner once, they're so good at it, they score.



“Maybe that's where we didn't get it quite right, when it fell to us we didn't quite get the goals and it could have been a different game. “We can say that about when we played Burgess Hill last time, so I think you have to look at it and go, maybe that is a skill from them. If what they do is repetitive, then it's good what they do.

“I felt like we did get everything right. At the end of the day, we didn't put the ball in the back of the net or follow that final runner when we really needed to.” Greenhalgh was speaking just minutes after the final whistle.

While hurting over Margate’s exit, he knew the final scoreline wasn’t a true reflection of his team's display. “I thought we were (excellent)..

.it's just one of them,” he added. “We've done so well to get to this stage.

And then you look at a 2-0 result and it doesn't reflect that game. “I think I'm giving a lot of respect to them because I think they are a good team. “But when you look at the flip side of things, I think we've been a brilliant team as well.

” Greenhalgh did his best to get Margate back into the tie, hitting the woodwork twice with one cross-shot just before half-time and nearly equalising with an audacious free-kick from near the halfway line. “They’re the things that I sort of play myself in the team for,” conceded Greenhalgh. “I know there's going to be moments where if I get on the edge of the box or get the set-pieces, and I've given Slav Huk a go.

“He's an experienced goalie, but I know he plays very high and I always try and catch a few goalies out - there's always one or two a season where it does work. “The crossbar one was just a bit of bad luck. If it's an inch shorter, it's a goal, it's 1-1 and I think we really push on, and then obviously the same with the free-kick.

“I think everyone on the ground thought it was in. He's fallen into the net after he saved it, making it look like it was in. If those moments fall for us a little bit more, the momentum of the game goes our way.

” It was a high-quality game and Greenhalgh praised both sets of players for the standard on display. It’s a far cry from when he played at this level with Maidstone previously. “That's got to be one of the highest standards of Step 4 semi-finals that's ever been around,” he added.

Read more: Burgess Hill 2-0 Margate match report “The level of football is getting so much better. I've spent most of my career in Step 2, maybe Step 1, and when I did play a few games when I was younger with Maidstone in Step 4, I remember how easy the games were. “But that game was just something else, the level of football, the quality of players, a lot of ex-professionals and a lot of young lads that hopefully are going to go on to be professionals.

“It would have been a good watch for a neutral, it was a good semi-final and I think the final between Burgess Hill and Sittingbourne will be entertaining as well.”.