I was putting the Hendon preview together ......

[Wellsie]

..... and when I looked at the side I was amazed to realise the change to the side we have now. Here's the side that represented Margate in the last game of last season (against Hendon):

 

Margate: Behcet, Oates (Jalloh), Standen, Gradley, Trott, Donovan (Edwards), Protheroe, Keister, Sesay, Hockton, Knight (Yiga)

Subs not used: Egan, Okikiolu.

 

For the full preview click here.

[Tony_T]

...and that was what, only 8 months ago? Cripes, haven't we just come on considering we had only just secured our place in the Premier Division!

[Chris1]

And a year ago we were 16th/22 in the league and fielded a team which included only 1 player who appeared at Horsham last Saturday.

 

Who? (No cheating!)

[Wellsie]

Without looking .... Greg or Dean .. so I'll go for Greg. Right, now I'm gonna look!

[MargateFan]

I reckon it was Deano, because he played nearly every game for us that season.

[Chris1]

Spot on June! Steve went the wrong way (Close but no cigar).

[Wellsie]

Can I just confirm that I thought it was Greg and it was Dean. Just a bit concerned about the suggestion I had "gone the wrong way"!

[Chris1]

Hey, there's another thread for that kind of talk!

[MargateFan]

Steady on there, boys!

[michael]

As i see it, there are 8 players (incl Sesay ) who were also in the squad at end of last season.

 

imo, by non league standards thats quite alot since with mainly one year contracts, most teams at this level seem to have to rebuild every season.

 

i think Chris' point comparing pre-Xmas/CK squad with the current squad is possibly more telling.

 

Similarly, i think most of us were confounded by the number of players who appeared for 'Gate last season.

Now whilst i have not counted, i reckon RT has used almost as many players so far this season as CK did at same time last season.

 

The difference is though that this year we have a relatively consistent CORE first team squad, and RT has maybe had a bit of a choice in being able to field players from the reserve squad,rather than go looking for players .

 

On numbers/stats alone however, i would not be surprised if so far we have had almost as many different players making appearances as last season

[Chris1]

It's not really fair to compare CK's and RT's squads, because we all know CK did not have the same resources.

 

FYI in league games we had used 31 players this time last season, compared to 21 this season.

 

However agree we have a much more settled core squad.

 

And the league position speaks for itself.

[I am Spartacus]

When you consider that it is a 16 man team now 21 is not a bad number to have used. Also of those 21 how many do you think will not appear again? Maybe 2 or 3 but no more.

[Chris1]

Yep, just Brayley and probably Wild.

[Boney Crisp]

I think the fact that we had used 31 different players at this stage last season is not very good when you consider that we did not have a reserve team.