Margate trialists urged to impress again by manager Reece Prestedge after some shine in 3-3 opening pre-season friendly draw against Deal Town

Some of Margate’s trialists made an early impression in their first pre-season friendly - but boss Reece Prestedge wants to see more of them before making any decisions.

Gate drew 3-3 with Southern Counties East Premier Division outfit Deal Town at Hartsdown Park on Saturday.

With the Isthmian Premier side using two entirely different XIs in either half, some 10 players on trial were among those involved.

One, wearing a No.19 shirt, showed promising signs in the first period while a trialist midfielder netted their first after the restart as they came from 2-0 down at the break to share the spoils in the six-goal game.

Prestedge said: “There were a few performances that we’ve noticed already.

“But you can’t just base it off one game.

“You have to look at it over a period of two or three games and, hopefully, they keep shining.”

Summer arrivals Damian Niemczycki and Tyrone Sterling featured in the first half alongside retained Sam Blackman, Harry Hudson, Rory Sutcliffe and Harvey Smith, although they trailed to efforts by Joe Reeves and Alfie Foster.

Margate hit back to make it 2-2 with experienced striker Steve Cawley getting off the mark and, although Deal retook the lead, player-assistant manager Ben Greenhalgh wasn’t to be denied a goal. The 31-year-old linked up with a trialist before perfectly slamming home with seven minutes remaining.

On their first-half display, Prestedge said: “We’re probably just rusty.

“There’s, obviously, five or six that haven’t played with each other and you just have to take the positives out of it, really.

“There were a lot more positives in the sense of what we were trying to implement within certain phases of the game and we just got minutes into people after two months off.”

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