First half was certainly the best I've seen us play since the opening home game against Canvey, when we also led 1-0 at the break but followed up with a second shortly afterwards, and went on to win comfortably.
Today we were a bit unlucky not to be further ahead by half time, with Jeffrey hitting the crossbar from distance and a Chambers header cleared off the line, while the Margate attack barely had a sniff. If there's a criticism it's that we had a number of attempts without testing the keeper. However, the opening goal from Jeffrey was an absolute peach, cutting inside from the right and unleashing the perfect left foot shot from the edge of the penalty area into the far top corner.
It was one of those days when the half time break was the last thing we needed. We just seemed to lose all momentum, and conceded a string of free kicks in dangerous positions in the first 15 minutes after the restart. Jeffrey was harshly booked for one of these when he seemed to inadvertently clip an opponent's heel in closing him down. Another foul given against the same player earned the Margate #8 a yellow card for suggesting our man should get a second. (He was subsequently rather lucky not to get a second himself for a pair of spoiling fouls late in the game.) A fourth free kick just before the hour was chipped to the far post, dropping conveniently for #8, having lost his marker, to convert on the half volley.
As the second half wore on, we came back into the game from an attacking perspective without looking especially composed or in control. There was always the nagging worry Margate could catch us on the break and that's what happened when a great crossfield pass was just kept in play on the left touchline by the substitute #10. Although his initial delivery into the box was repelled, we remained stretched until the ball was worked out to the opposite flank for a simple square delivery across goal to set up #9 for an easy finish just as 6 additional minutes were announced. I thought the referee handled the game well on the whole, although I'm not sure what an assessor would make of him declining to show two fairly obvious yellow cards to visiting players in stoppage time, which avoided further delays and enabled us to sustain the attacking momentum that eventually brought that last gasp equaliser. I didn't have a great view from 90 yards away but a left wing cross reached the far post for substitute Shonibare to convert from close range.
Considering the 45 minutes after half time was a rather painful exhibition of shooting ourselves in the foot, I thought the atmosphere was remarkably upbeat and there a huge roar when we equalised, followed by loud chanting clearly audible from outside the ground as I made my way back to the station. It almost felt like a win in the end.
