Regent made a Tuesday night 248 mile round trip to Margate for this Bostik Premier League encounter. Margate came into this game unbeaten in eight and were looking to further their play-off ambitions, having been without a game since early December.

Regent started well, containing the Gate’s front line and making a few early chances themselves.

On the 16th minute, Billy Hunt opened the scoring as the Margate keeper, Patrick Lee, spilled the ball from a long range free kick from Aaron Condon, with Billy on hand to place the ball home from six yards.

Regent continued the first half with a lot of the ball but without troubling the Margate keeper too much in the final third, Phil Kelly always looking to create something. James Love found himself running through the centre of the Margate defence only to be beaten by a tricky piece of 3G pitch. Margate came close to levelling on the stroke of half time when Harry Palmer denied Margate’s number 9 Jay May at close range. HT 1-0

The second half saw a complete contrast to the first half. Margate came out with all guns firing, shaking off the cobwebs of the first half and within five minutes of the restart they were level. A corner from the left was met by a well-guided header from Margate’s Ben Swift. Four minutes later and Margate were in front as Frannie Collin found himself clear of the Regent defence and put a low drive past Harry Palmer. 2-1

At this point, the match was seemingly slipping away from Regent with constant pressure from the hosts, only for Aaron Condon to pounce on another spilled save, lifting the ball over the stranded keeper to level the scores 2-2 on 61 minutes.

Once again, the Margate team raised their game with Regent being pushed back deep and on the 75th minute the home side were ahead when a low cross from the right found Jay May with room in the box, his shot leaving Harry Palmer with no chance. 3-2

Margate finally saw off Regent’s valiant defensive effort in the 84th minute with a fine individual goal from the Gate’s substitute Jordan Chiedozie who waltzed through a tired-looking Regent defence before burying his shot low into the net. FT 4-2

Report by Neil Payne