It was honours even at Homelands as the Kent football Bank Holiday weekend began with a battling draw between Ashford United and Margate with both sides feeling perhaps aggrieved not to have claimed the points and having to settle for one each. 

After the kick off was bizarrely delayed by referee Dempster’s insistence on the floodlights being on before the start on a bright Ashford evening, the Gate took the lead when Harvey Brand beat Mitch Beeney with a low drive from the edge of the box only for Max Walsh to level for the home side just before the break. 

Beeney was the Ashford hero just after the break beating out Kai Garande’s penalty before the visitors retook the lead when Ibrahim Olutade met a right-wing ball sweetly at the near post.

The home side though preserved their unbeaten start under Danny Kedwell when sub-Jack Saunders drilled home from the edge of the box with just nine minutes left. 

The game had a bewildering twenty-minute delay at the start when the match official deemed, he would not start proceedings until the floodlights were switched on despite there not being a cloud above the Homelands and lovely blue sky. 

The tempo of the game early on was frustratingly bitty, and the first real action came when Brand gloriously beat Beeney with a low drive from the edge of the box after just 18 minutes. 

Adem Ramadan was first to test Gate keeper Tom Wray with a fierce effort that the keeper beat out, whilst at the other end a brilliant diagonal ball released Jordan Ababio, but sadly the wide man’s finish did not match the ball. 

Wray was extended again after a great interplay between Ramadan and Joe Taylor saw a curling ball into the box clawed to safety by the keeper, only for a frustrating half for the home side to end with them level.

The ball was played into Gary Lockyer whose dummy was supreme and Walsh arriving behind the big striker brilliantly found the bottom corner from the edge of the box. 

The visitors started the second half brightly and after a mazy run Garande was upended, only for Beeney to beat out the spot kick. 

Louis Collins will have been annoyed not to have given the home side the lead after being well placed at the back post only to shoot wide, and how Margate made the home side pay as a flowing move down the right was whipped into the near post for Ibrahim to get in front of the defender to volley past Beeney. 

The home side had to come from behind again and the introduction of sub-Marley St Louis was the spur they needed. Lee Martin’s quick free kick found the sub, and his wicked dipping curling effort was magnificently tipped over by Wray.

Ashford though were not to be denied and from a corner that followed on eighty-one minutes, Saunders smashed home a loose ball that the visitors should really have cleared. 

Collins had a glorious late chance to win the game for the home side, but after St Louis helped on Beeney’s free kick, the striker couldn’t hit the target when well placed. 

ASHFORD UNITED – Beeney, Moses, Taylor, Stone, Dunne, Walsh (St Louis), Ramadan (Saunders), Lockyer, Collins, Martin, Carney (Berry) 

Subs – Jonah, Spiers 

MARGATE – Wray, Hatfull, Brand, Hudson, Ababio, Franzen-Jones (Bessey-Saldanha), Greenhalgh, Knight, Davey, Garande, Olutade 

Subs – Craig, Sterling, Rutherford 

REFEREE – Mr. Dempster 

Attendance: 573

Pictures supplied by Ian Scammell.