Margate assistant manager Matt Longhurst says he and boss Jamie Coyle are leaving no stone unturned as Isthmian South East club aim to bolster attacking options

Assistant manager Matt Longhurst and boss Jamie Coyle are leaving no stone unturned as Margate aim to bolster their attacking options.

Gate suffered a second straight Isthmian South East defeat last weekend, losing 2-1 at Sevenoaks.

It’s been a mixed start at Hartsdown Park for Coyle and Longhurst and, with talisman Javaun Splatt now on international duty with the British Virgin Islands, the need to sign some more strikers has grown.

“We’re just light on numbers up front,” said Longhurst.

“Javaun Splatt is on international duty. His knee isn’t quite right, either, so I’m not sure how that will go on international duty.

"After that, we’ve not really got a forward player at the moment.

“Johan Caney-Bryan is on loan at Bearsted and he’s not quite ready yet. Albie O’Mara-Knapp is only a young player so we are looking to strengthen in the final third.

“But we’re so reluctant to have a massive turnover of players because that doesn’t help.

“We’d lost two league games in a row but both of those were only by one goal. We’ve just got to find someone that will help us to put games to bed.

“Last year, we were resilient but we had Splatty on 30-odd goals and Bradley Schafer got more than 20 goals.

“If you look at Faversham, Croydon and Herne Bay, they have that firepower. Ultimately, we need to get one or two Joe Taylor-type players, or players like Greg Cundle, or like Ibzs (Ibrahim Olutade) and Josh Ajayi at Faversham.

“That’s where we are looking. It’s not for the want of trying but there are only so many out there.

"After that, you’re chasing Step 3 players and it’s still a little early in the season for that.”

Longhurst and Coyle were in a similar situation when they first took over at Whitstable.

They made a bad start,