A Friday evening at the end of a long week and it was a match at one of my favourite local grounds that motivated me to leave the warmth of my home and drive to the Aquatherm Stadium.

Tonight’s game was a quarter final tie in the Kent Intermediate Cup between Faversham Town’s Under 23 team and the Under 23’s of Margate FC. I love watching U23 or “Development” football for the energy and the goals it brings. There looked to be a crowd of over 100 for tonight’s game, so I clearly wasn’t the only person drawn to this tie.

Based on the current league table tonight’s two sides were well matched. Faversham Town occupied eighth place at kick off, with seven wins and six defeats in thirteen games. Margate FC sat just two places above Faversham, with seven wins, two draws and four defeats from their thirteen games.

Kieron Smith (9 goals) is the leading goal scorer for Faversham Town with Cameron Piper and Taylor Angrabait (3 goals) also contributing. For Margate FC goals this season have come from William Geddes (7 goals), David Greig (5 goals) and Woody Pitman (4 goals).

After five minutes Margate were ahead when Finnley Saunders scored, after breaking through on the Faversham Town goal unchallenged.

On 22 minutes the away side stretched their lead to 2-0 when an excellent shot turned cross from Finnley Saunders was hit home by Iman Alam.

With just three minutes of the half left to play, Iman Alam scored his second, after a beautifully threaded pass, to make it 0-3 at the break to Margate FC.

There was still time just before the referee blew for the break to see a fine double save by the Faversham Town keeper.

With 68 minutes left a fine headed finish from a corner by Jerzy Krzyszka saw Faversham Town claw a goal back, which was just reward for a spirited return after the break.

With just seven minutes on the clock Faversham Town were just a goal behind when their substitute fired the ball home from outside the penalty area, almost entirely catching me out with my filming!

As the game moved into added time and Faversham threw everything into their hunt for an equaliser, Margate managed to use the space left to effectively counter attack and clinched the victory with a well taken goal, which almost certainly secured the result.

There was time for the away side to finish again, using the space left in the home team’s defence as tiredness took its toll, to make it 2-5 on the night.

At fulltime it was Margate’s U23 side that progressed into the semi finals with a convincing performance. They survived a second half fight back to eventually post a convincing three goal margin in victory.