Life, Love, Libertines…and Lewes

Here’s a quick survey for you, in the style of those magazines you find in the waiting room at the doctors. What comes immediately to mind when Margate is mentioned?

A) Only Fools and Horses
B) Chas and Dave
C) The Turner Contemporary Art Gallery
D) The Libertines

If you answered A), then you are probably over forty years old and currently tittering to yourself at the thought of The Jolly Boys Outing, you plonker. If you’re also a Lewes fan you may now also be looking around your coach and hoping that it’s got a valid fire safety certificate.

If you answered D), then you are probably under thirty and don’t quite understand A) or B).

If you answered B), you’re around fifty years old and quite possibly a Spurs fan. You may now be singing a song about a rabbit.

If you answered C), there is a good likelihood that you’ve been misdirected to this website. You were probably looking for Betty Parsons, but sadly this is Betty Victor.

There is far more to Margate than popular culture and contemporary art, however. There is also Dreamland, a theme park particularly beloved of South London children growing up during the second half of the twentieth century, and now attracting their twenty-first century offspring. And, of course, there is the wonderful world of Margate FC.

It’s true enough that when you ask people to think about Margate the football club isn’t the first thing on their list. Indeed, if we’d added an E) and an F) to the silly quiz above it would still have come in somewhere behind the theme park and the beach at G). But the current club is looking to change that- and they seem to be going about it the right way.

A large number of people at Hartsdown Park today looked as if they would most certainly have heard of the Libertines- indeed many of them were wearing the name of the band across their chest, as at the start of last season Pete Doherty, Carl Barât and friends became the latest popular music stars to sponsor Margate FC. The latest, you may be asking? Indeed, as those who can remember when The Jolly Boys Outing was first shown on TV (1989) may also recall a period when the football club were sponsored by a record company and their shirts bore the name of eighties Ska superstars Bad Manners. The lead singer, a certain Mr Buster Bloodvessel, had opened a hotel in the town catering for- as he put it- “fat fatty fat folks”- with enormous beds, reinforced baths, forty-eight ounce steaks and mushroom pie sandwiches. Sadly ‘Fatty Towers’ is no more, although that’s not because the kitchen killed off the clientele (although it can’t have helped). Hopefully The Libertines hotel venture, scheduled to open this year, won’t go the same way- although given the tabloid stories about Doherty clearing away a Margate mega-breakfast in a local café last summer, we can’t be sure.

There were no mega-breakfasts on offer to football fans at Hartsdown Park an hour and a half before kick off. The Margate FC of 2019 isn’t into promoting excess. That hasn’t always been the case- even those who have only seen Only Fools courtesy of Gold may well have supported the club through periods of administration, winding up orders, enforced ground sharing at Dover and Ashford, a name change (Thanet United, anyone?) and a list of promotions and relegations so long it would be understandable if they had all gone bald due to stress. Some of them had.

Today’s Margate FC is a rather different beast, thank goodness.

Today was a designated Family Funday. The club run many of these, with all sorts of games for children, penalty shootout competitions, and activities designed to make the ground entirely family friendly. Ducks were being hooked, an elephant’s head was being used as a target for small hoops (we didn’t ask what had happened to the rest of it), and small folk were everywhere. There was a period not too long before kick off when it seemed as if the average age of the crowd was twelve. If you could have bottled the laughter and adopted the principles employed by Monsters Inc. we could have powered half of Kent.

Gate hadn’t had the start to the season they might have hoped for, with three draws and a defeat- which came at Cray Wanderers in midweek- to show from their four matches. Manager Jay Saunders, in his programme notes, took encouragement from the attacking football they had played, but explained that his young side needed to learn that “any little mistake will be punished.” Their opponents today, Lewes, had even less to shout about, currently propping up the rest after failing to pick up a win from their first three matches. A quartet of travelling Rooks in the bar before the game weren’t particularly confident, describing their form in home defeat to Bowers & Pitsea last weekend as “dreadful. We kept hoofing the ball forward instead of passing it.” There wasn’t a great deal of hope that today would change their fortunes, although they expected to rally and have a mid-table season. Mind you, their mood can’t have been helped by the time they’d just spent stuck on the M2 in a coach with broken air conditioning. Perhaps they’d have cheered up after a few cold drinks in the Hartsdown Bar.

The home faithful weren’t much more positive, it must be said. Saunders side was described as “exciting, but a work in progress,” by one, “talented but naïve” by another. Kevin, club photographer, videographer, programme editor and jack-of-all-trades suggested that a high-scoring draw wouldn’t be out of the question, and virtually promised goals- but seemed to suggest they’d come at both ends. Perhaps it would be a good day for a neutral.

The teams emerged into glorious sunshine at three minutes to three. Glorious, but hot. A new arrival to the main stand pointed out to a friend that the temperature was thirty two degrees. On that basis it may have been a far better day for watching football than it was for playing it.

The Blues got us underway, kicking towards the clubhouse, but the first shot came from the Rooks, Jordy Mongoy latching on to a throw in and testing Jon Miles in the Margate goal- although not actually testing him too much. The next chance also came to the visitors; Dayshonne Golding twisting and turning at the edge of the box before delivering an excellent cross onto the head of Mongoy, who wasn’t able to make it count. Gate hit back, and in the sixth minute came close to opening the scoring as Kudus Oyenuga rolled a shot against the post, keeper Nathan Stroomberg beaten.

The other number nine, Dean Bown of the Rooks, was the next to test the keeper, and the game moved from end to end with a pace that took no heed of the temperature. A better first touch might have allowed Kieron Pamment to open the scoreline a minute later, but he miscontrolled and saw it cleared as Lewes continued to press.

The Rooks were having much the better of the opening exchanges, that chance from Oyenuga apart- but Gate had the next real scoring chance, too. A long clearance saw Kadell Daniel run goalwards, and there was only one defender anywhere near him. Soon they were shoulder to shoulder, the forward went down, and eighty percent of those present shouted for a penalty. The referee was unmoved- and he was right. Daniel showed good control in the box and fired into the side netting as we approached the quarter hour, and had he approached his earlier chance with the same balance and verve the home side may well have been ahead.

The match then plodded along for a while without incident, until a shot from Golding, which went for a goal kick, prompted the referee to call a drinks break. Both sides emerged rejuvenated, and a period of Rooks pressure was followed by another chance for Oyenuga at the other end, his shot rolling wide of the post. Daniel then drove an effort down the middle of the goal, forcing Stroomberg to save with his legs. We entered the last fifteen minutes of the half short on goals but not on entertainment.

Soon we weren’t short on goals, either.

The finish was excellent, a powerful header from Oyenuga which left the Lewes keeper with no chance. But it would be important not to understate the importance of the assist, which was a thing of beauty. Harrison Hatfull got the ball infield, took it to the right of the box, and delivered a cross to the far post which couldn’t have been more accurate had it been laser-guided. It could have been two-nil a couple of minutes later, the increasingly impressive Daniel starting a flowing move inside his own half before almost finishing it on the edge of the Rooks box, his shot being diverted once more by the legs of Stroomberg.

With a little luck Lewes would have been level in the thirty-eighth minute. A cross from Inesh Sumithran arrowed towards an unmarked Mongoy six yards out, but it came at such pace that the Rooks number two didn’t have time to adjust his feet, and the ball hit his standing leg and was cleared before he could pounce on it. The Rooks continued to press, and Miles was happy to watch a shot from Pamment go outside the far post; the keeper wouldn’t have reached it were it on target. We reached the break with no further addition to the scoreline.

The Rooks came out for the second half and reprised their pre-match huddle, then got us underway. The passing and movement from the visitors during the first period had been impressive, the finishing less so- and that pattern continued five minutes after the restart, a pass from Golding setting up Sumithran on the edge of the box but the midfielders shot clearing the bar by some yards. Pamment did better a minute later, forcing Miles to save, but the Rooks would need to be more clinical were they to get something from the match.

Pamment had the next attempt, too, in the fifty-sixth minute, as he ran at the home defence and fired in a shot- but again it was far too close to Miles, who smothered it without too much concern. The Rooks would have been heartened by the amount of possession they were having, and by the number of long balls suddenly being played by their opponents as they cleared their lines, but possession without an end product wasn’t going to give them a breakthrough.

The visitors had their best chance so far in the sixty fifth minute. Michael Dome-Bemwin was fouled just outside the box, and up stepped James Hammond. His free kick cleared the wall and beat the keeper, but crashed back off the bar- and when the ball found its way back to him at the edge of the box his effort was blocked by a wall of bodies and cleared.

The pace had slackened, particularly from the home side, who were content to let Lewes chase the game whilst they conserved their energy. Daniel had their first notable effort for some time in the sixty eighth minute, but it was both high and wide and was the trigger for the referee to signal another drinks break, the second of the half so far. Play resumed with more Rooks pressure, but no change in their fortunes as Dome-Bemwin tried to find a way through the blue wall on the edge of the box but shot wide. Then at the other end Daniel once more caused no end of trouble, his shot forcing a diving save from Stroomberg. A number of home fans in the main stand applauded not only the shot but the Rooks keeper, not for the first time- they’re a magnanimous bunch at Hartsdown Park. Mind you, they could afford to be, they were winning!

As we moved into the last six minutes Lewes earned a corner. Would this be their chance? Well we did indeed get a goal, but it came at the other end. The corner was cleared and Rooks substitute Brad Santos, trying to claim it on the halfway line, slipped. Daniel pounced, and showed no mercy. He charged forward, outpaced the defence, and passed it into the corner of the net. It was Santos’ debut, and he must have wished it could have waited another week as he looked for the ground to swallow him up. Daniel soon picked up another prize, as man of the match was announced. It was richly deserved.

Lewes didn’t give up. Four minutes into added time Pamment, who always looked most likely to score for the visitors, arrowed a shot towards the top corner of the Margate net only to see it clear the bar by an inch or two; a fine margin which somehow summed up the Rooks day. After six added minutes- perhaps the referee had a sadistic streak- the match came to an end. Margate had their first win of the season. Lewes still wait for theirs.

It’s difficult to make a judgement on the outcome of the season after four/five matches. Both sides showed a great deal of endeavour today, in intense heat, and both showed real quality; passing and moving the ball with speed which was, at times, delightful to watch. The difference between the sides, however, was clear. The Blues had, in Oyenuga and, particularly, Daniel, a cutting edge. When they fashioned a chance they always looked likely to take it. The Rooks were very good at getting the ball into dangerous areas, but terrible at making their pressure count.

Margate climb to seventh. The Rooks remain rock bottom. Before the match one of the Rooks faithful mentioned that they hadn’t managed to replace Jonte Smith, who left for Oxford United last season, and after ninety minutes today it was easy to see exactly what he meant. Lewes looked to have need of a Smith. Or perhaps a Daniel, or an Oyenuga.

Gate have them already. And many BetVictor Isthmian Premier defences are likely to regret that by the time the season ends.