Margate player-boss Ben Greenhalgh recalls previous meeting with FA Cup weekend visitors Loxwood - a friendly shortly after first coronavirus lockdown

Margate player-manager Ben Greenhalgh has recalled his previous encounter with weekend visitors Loxwood - which came in entirely different circumstances.

Greenhalgh was at Tonbridge when they faced the West Sussex side in a friendly in August 2020 - shortly after the first coronavirus lockdown.

Now at the Hartsdown Park helm, he will be aiming to help ensure Margate see off Loxwood in the FA Cup preliminary round on Saturday.

He revealed: “Strangely, I have played against them.

“That was the first game after the original lockdown when I was at Tonbridge.

“To be fair to them, it seems like they have been on the rise as a club since. They have some young, energetic players and they’re giving it a go.

“With it being a game in the FA Cup, they will be the ones looking for a shock result.

“But one thing we’re not going to accept is being outworked this year.

“Whether teams are higher or lower, we need to give them respect and play to our levels. We have got to target our standards that we have set.

“Margate haven’t had a great FA Cup run for a few years now.

“I would love to be the side that does have one but our focus has to be on Saturday.”

On coming up against Loxwood again, Greenhalgh, whose full-time job involves managing Dartford’s Academy players, said: “It will be completely different!

“It feels like those Covid days are past us. You almost completely forget what we had to do with getting changed in stands and stuff like that.

“But I’ve been in football pretty much my whole life as an adult and that little break really gave some players the hunger to play football again and really kick on.

“It’s good to be back now and playing games against these sorts of sides in more normal conditions.”

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