Margate was founded in 1896 and joined the Southern League in 1933. After a spell in the Kent League after World War II the team returned to the Southern League in 1959. The club was known for a number of years during the 1980s as Thanet United, and remained in the Southern League until 2001 when they gained promotion to the Football Conference. Their stay at this level saw the team forced to groundshare with Dover Athletic and Ashford Town due to drawn-out and problematic redevelopment work at their Hartsdown Park stadium. During the three years spent away from their own ground they were expelled from the Conference National and subsequently relegated to the Isthmian League. They played in the Premier Division for the 10 seasons until they won promotion through the play-offs to the National League South, avoided immediate relegation in 2015/16 on goal difference, but a season later there was demotion to the Isthmian Premier.
Herne Bay had joined the Kent League Division Two for the 1953/54 season and played against Margate Reserves. Upon promotion to the First Division for 1957/58 Bay and Margate met in league competition for the only time. The Gate won all four encounters over the two seasons with a goal difference of +12.
Margate denied Herne Bay their only appearance in the First Round Proper of the FA Cup when they won 1-0 at Winch’s Field in 1970/71 in the Fourth Qualifying Round. In November 2014 Bay travelled to Hartsdown Park in the Kent Senior Cup Second Round and were unfortunate to be beaten 3-1, Danny Williams scoring.
Margate have had a mixed start to their Isthmian Premier League campaign under new manager Steve Watts. An opening day 1-0 win over Thurrock was followed by two home draws, Tonbridge Angels 0-0 and Leiston 2-2. They then lost 1-0 at Wingate & Finchley and gained their second and third victories beating Dorking Wanderers 1-0 and bottom side Worthing 5-0 and a 1-1 home draw with Harrow Borough. On Wednesday they travelled to Leatherhead and moved up to 7th in the table with a 2-0 win.
Their FA Cup journey has been a 3-1 victory over East Grinstead Town in the First Qualifying Road followed by winning 1-0 away at Southern League Premier Division Kings Langley at the next stage. Gate also beat East Grinstead Town 2-1 in the Isthmian League Cup and just over two weeks ago Herne Bay gave five full debuts and a further two from the bench as John Embery and Jermaine Darlington rang the changes for the visit of Margate in the Kent Senior Cup Second Round. Alex Mulrooney-Skinner levelled after 38 minutes following Harry Stannard’s opener for Margate on 18. In the second half Stannard added his second and Liam Friend headed in to secure Gate’s progress into the Quarter-Finals. The young, inexperienced Bay fought well to reduce the deficit and certainly were not disgraced by their higher league opponents.
Frannie Collin, Orlando Smith, Jordan Chiedozie and Harry Stannard have all been knocking in the goals for Gate. Their average home league attendance is 609, with a high of 632 and a low of 552, although in their FA Cup and Isthmian League Cup ties with East Grinstead Town they managed only 458 and 196 respectively.
This will be Herne Bay’s 50th Cup game since joining the Isthmian League, with 18 wins, 8 draws and 23 defeats, scoring 73 and conceding 102 from the 49 matches so far.