Bognor coach Blake: We were better against Margate - but still not good enough

Harvey Whyte was on the scoresheet for Bognor, cancelling out Roman Campbell’s early second half goal, before Keiron Monlouis scored late to take all three points back to Margate.

“I really think we deserved to win that game today,” Blake said after the game (match report here).

“We did enough in the second half, we had some clear-cut chances we should have scored from and could have won it. They (Margate) will probably say otherwise.”

Bognor missed a number of chances, including a goalmouth scramble where the ball hit the bar and was then cleared off the line. But although the Rocks missed the chance to gain points leading up to the play off places, Blake doesn’t doubt his side still gave it their all to win.

He said, “One thing I can take from today’s game and I hope the supporters can see it too, is the lads gave 100 per cent and put in a good shift.

“They tried their hardest but unfortunately, at the minute we aren’t good enough and that includes being in the play-off places, and that's because we’ve got frailties.

“But having said that, we have to keep trying and giving 110 per cent and I feel like that’s what they are doing.”

Bognor had turned in a bad performance on New Years Day in a 3-0 defeat to closest rivals Worthing. The Rocks improved against Margate but Blake feels his side still didn’t have enough going forward and sometimes looked weak at the back.

“The Worthing game was frustrating because we didn’t play well and we were off the pace and I think our lack of game time didn’t help. But today, this wasn’t the case, it was a better game for us.

“I just think we didn’t have enough firepower going forward or have enough defensively as you can see and it shows in the result. We had enough chances to win the game but unfortunately we didn’t and it’s as simple as that.”

Blake's players must now brush themselves off and learn from their mistakes in time for their next fixture away to Leatherhead on Saturday.

Leatherhead sit one place above the Rocks in the table, but a win would mean Jack Pearce and Blake's troops leapfrogging their opponents.

Blake added, “They’re flying at the minute and it’ll be difficult, but we will pick ourselves up and go again. Football has a habit of striking you when you’re down and it’s struck us again, but it makes players stronger and we will come back again and learn from it next week.”