Margate 0 – 1 Wealdstone

Margate

0 - 1

Wealdstone

KO: 15:00 | Sat 18th Feb ’17

Wealdstone piled more misery on hosts Margate after Aryan Tajbakhsh’s debut strike was enough to grab the three points at Hartsdown Park and condemn basement-side Margate to their fifteenth straight defeat.

Tajbakhsh and Ciaron Brown were the only two changes to Gordon Bartlett’s side with Josh Walker and Nathan Mavila dropped to the bench.

The game was far from a classic and it took until the 37th minute for the Stones to really test Lewis Ward in goal on his Margate return, when Elliott Godfrey played Joe White one-on-one with the keeper but his effort was too close to the Dagenham & Redbridge loanee.

Ricky Wellard then had an effort similar to his goal at Southport tipped round the post by Ward as the Stones upped the ante just before half time.

The Stones then made that dominant spell of play pay off and after some hectic pinball in the box with the ball eventually falling for Tajbakhsh on the edge of the area and he hit a well executed half volley past the keeper and gave the Stones a deserved lead.

Despite the visitors growing in stature as the first half progressed they failed to exploit Margate further and the second half proved to be similar to what was seen in the Oxford City and Whitehawk games with neither side really creating chances.

The Stones best chance came from a set play with Danny Green hitting a beautiful 30-yard free-kick around the wall but off of the frame of the post and crossbar against his old club.

Margate’s best chance came on 86 minutes when Ben Swallow had a curling effort from the edge of the area, but it was straight at birthday boy Jonathan North as were most of Margate’s chances throughout the game.

Eddie Oshodi had a great chance to wrap the game up deep into injury time. He was played through on goal by substitute Jonny Wright as the Stones launched a counter-attack but his low effort was well saved by Ward in the Margate goal.

That result leaves Stones in 13th but has opened quite a gap to the sides below allowing them to look forward rather than behind as they travel to Welling United next week.

WEALDSTONE: North, Oshodi, Brown, Hunt, Hamblin, Godfrey, Green, Cox, White, Wellard (Wright 84), Tajbakhsh (Mavila 61) nused subs: Goulding, Walker, Parker

By Chris Woods

Listen to Gordon Bartlett’s post reaction HERE