Chatham 0 Margate 1

A DOUBLE deflection with 20 minutes to go gave Margate a fortunate victory against Chatham at Maidstone Road on Saturday.

Chatham had the better of the play against the side who were playing in the Nationwide Conference South last season and created more chances.

But some good saves from the Margate keeper and the freak goal in the 70th minute meant they lost the game 1-0.

Gate started the match strongly and forced 12 corners in the opening stages, but Chatham's defence coped well.

It was Chats who should have led at the break, though, when 19-year-old midfielder Byron Walker was put through one-on-one with the keeper.

He failed to convert that chance, while Steve Searle was also denied by the Gate stopper twice in the second half.

Chatham manager Steve Binks said: "I am delighted with our performance and I can take a lot of positives from the game.

"We played the better football and created the better chances. Our keeper barely had a shot to save and our back four were tremendous."

In other pre-season matches, Gravesend won 1-0 at Hastings thanks to a Manny Omoyinmi strike.