Match Report -
A disgrace
By Debbie Taylor

Celtic were relegated before today's game but that is no excuse for the abysmal performance today.

All of the Celtic eleven, with the possible exception of Courtney, should be ashamed of their efforts against a Margate side who, with all due respect to them, are nothing special.

Celtic started brightly and Parr should have done better on 5 minutes with a header from 6 yards which just cleared the bar. That just about covers Celtic's attempts on goal. At the and of the game the Margate 'keeper confirmed that he never had a shot to save in the entire 90 minutes

Margate's opening goal from Roddis was hit from 25 yards and flew into the top corner pass a stationary David Fish who seemed to think the shot was going wide.

3 minutes later from a corner on the right, an unmarked Munday headed Margate's second.

Steve Pickford then proceeded to get himself sent-off after being shown a second yellow card following what appeared to be an off the ball tussle with a Margate midfielder - this only 5 minutes after being booked for a foul.

When a speculative shot come cross by Lamb sailed over David Fish's head to make it 3-0 on 38 minutes, the writing was on the wall and I, like the majority of the Celtic team, lost interest in the match.

After Margate went 5-0 up Ged Courtney looked likely to get some consolation for the 'bridge but after weaving his way round two Margate defenders and the 'keeper was finally dispossessed.

The afternoon's misery was complete when Fish came out to collect a Margate through ball and was adjudged to have handled outside his area. The referee immediately flashed his red card for the second time in the afternoon and Celtic were down to 9 men.

A very quiet Ayorinde was sacrificed for Leigh Walker, who made his contribution by conceding 2 more goals before the end to make it an embarrassing 8-0.

Apart from Courtney, who at least showed some commitment at times, the only other person worthy of a mention is Dave Miller.

Following the sixth (or was it the seventh) goal, Miller had a word with the linesman and a steward, presumably to ask permission and then strode around to the Celtic fans behind the Margate goal and apologised for the performance and promised to sort things out next season.

That must have taken a lot of guts and I applaud him for doing so (can anyone imagine Paul Futcher doing the same?), let's hope he does sort things out because if the team perform next season like they did today we'll be following Hyde into NPL 1 like a lead balloon.