Haringey Borough 1 Margate 0

Bostick League Premier Division, Saturday 19th January 2019

Ralston Gabriel headed home an 87^th minute winner as ten-man Haringey Borough saw off struggling Margate in a dominant performance in front of 456 at Coles Park and see the North London side five points clear at the top of the Bostick Premier Division.

The hosts came into this off the back of a defeat at struggling Harlow Town last time out, ending a long unbeaten run that had seen them take control of the division, so it was imperative that they got back to winning ways to keep their advantage at the top.

Margate were the visitors to Coles Park and they have had a fairly disappointing season and look to be in a relegation dogfight, but they could take heart from what Harlow did last weekend so they would have believed they could get a result here.

But the opening quarter hour mark saw the hosts completely overrun their lowly league opponents and create several openings, however none of these actually tested the keeper whatsoever as all were off target, which would have disappointed them no doubt.

The pass and movement of the hosts was breath taking though and Margate were really struggling to cope with it, but they did get through the first half-hour unscathed and did manage the only shot on target in the match at that point, although it was straight at the keeper.

The visitors did start to finally settle into the contest after Borough’s initial early onslaught, but they were handed an advantage in the 33^rd minute when hosts midfielder George Aresti was shown a straight red card after a kick-out following a challenge, and you felt that after all the home sides dominance, this could turn the game perhaps.

Despite the numerical disadvantage though Haringey still looked the likelier to score, and after more openings missed the target, they also had two penalty shouts waved away too, meaning the game remained goalless at the break.  It certainly meant an important second half was coming up for both sides.

Half Time Haringey Borough 0 Margate 0

The second period pretty much carried on like the first one, with the hosts continuing to carve out openings with their terrific pass and movement, but sadly they did not have their shooting boots on and continued to miss the target, or on a couple of occasions miss the ball completely from a couple of cut-backs.

Margate looked like a side who were terrified of being caught on the counter by a pacey and skilful Borough attack, and although they had the man advantage they rarely tried to venture forward to much and lacked ambition in my eyes.  You could see why they were struggling down towards the bottom of the division.

They did have a couple of efforts at goal though, but although one was again on target, it was easy for the keeper, whilst the other effort was way off target, but at least on those occasions they at least looked like they could try and cause problems for the hosts.

But despite this the home side were pretty dominant and when they did finally get an effort on target, they really should have scored but saw the keeper beat away a close-range effort, and it seemed like one of those days for the hosts and two points seemed to be slipping away.

The ten-men though kept plugging away and with three minutes of normal time remaining they finally broke through as a corner into the six-yard box saw Gabriel glance home a header and cued mass celebrations as they knew how important this win could be. They had also done this whilst playing with a man short for the best part of an hour, but they really did not look like a team who had been a man light, such was their dominance.

It all means that Borough remain top, five points clear, and more important back to winning ways once again, whilst for Margate they drop a place to 17^th and are just four points above the bottom four, and on this display, it looks like a tough few months ahead for the Kent side.

Full Time Haringey Borough 1 Margate 0