Player-manager Ben Greenhalgh is confident Margate can soon start to turn good displays into more wins.

Gate, last term's Isthmian South East play-off semi-finalists, drew 2-2 at Crowborough last weekend.

It was a seventh stalemate in 15 league fixtures for Margate, who are outside the top five, sitting ninth, despite having suffered only three defeats this season.

Greenhalgh said: “We’ve changed the mentality in the group because the performances are there.

“It’s no good being terrible and winning games at the start of the season because, after a while, those terrible performances will crop up again.

“We have had a good month - nearly a good two months - in terms of the way we’re playing. But we have drawn too many games.

“It’s a difficult one. With a draw, you don’t lose and you can try to look at the positives that way.

"But the sad reality is a draw isn’t half as good as a win. We have got to get more three points over the next 15 games, but we are quite positive.

"We know we can do it.”

Greenhalgh had put Margate into a 14th-minute lead at Crowborough, only for the hosts to hit back with a goal in each half - the second directly from a corner.

But the one-time Inter Milan playmaker bagged his second in the 86th minute to earn a point.

“It’s tough,” said the 33-year-old. “The moment you go away - on a grass pitch and against a team that plays well at home - you want to look at the positive element of a draw.

“But I felt we deserved three points. It was one of the first games where we made two really uncharacteristic defensive errors that led to goals.

“With our attacking chances, we probably should have taken at least another one of them.

“On another day, we put another one away and take the 3-2 win. But let’s not take anything away from Crowborough.

"They’re a pretty good outfit.”

The weekend saw young defender Harry Lawrence make his Gate bow.

Greenhalgh said: “Harry did really well.

"Their front three are the most dangerous players for them, they’re the ones that score the goals, but Harry played exactly how we expected him to on Saturday.”

The boss pointed to the absence of several key players, including No.1 Tom Wray, as Margate were forced, again, to settle for a share of the spoils in front of a 332-strong crowd.

He said: “I try to avoid looking at what we’re missing.

“But when the match is done, you do look back and think ‘What if we had him?’. I felt that game required experience.

“At 1-0 up, it’s hard to say we could have gone out of sight, but we could have been more clinical as a group.

“But there was Lewis Knight - a leader at the back - missing, and Sam Blackman, who is a previous captain and a leader in midfield, missing. Brandon Davey is pretty experienced, especially for his age, and you can throw in Tom Derry, as well.

“I do feel like in that game on Saturday it was a little bit open. We gave away chances we shouldn’t have done. But Reece [Hobbs] has come in and done really well.

“The corner they have scored from is one of those where Reece takes some blame as the goalkeeper. It was a good cross.

“We spoke to Reece about it on Monday but, to be fair, we could have also helped him out a bit more.”

Gate’s game at Crowborough was a second successive one they had started brightly following last month’s 7-2 win over second-bottom Beckenham.

“It’s something we have worked on,” Greenhalgh said.

“We have gone from a team which is really experienced and really together, that we had last season. You can be more patient until 65 or 70 minutes with that because you have done it before.

“But it’s something we say now in the warm-up that we have got to start fast because that’s a strength of ours. It’s definitely an element of our game we have worked on.

“Hopefully, once we have got some of our experienced players back in the mix, we can work on both aspects of the game.

“If we can, we will be - not necessarily unstoppable - but certainly much better for it.”

Next up is the visit of mid-table Broadbridge, who beat VCD 4-1 at the weekend for a fourth victory in five matches, this Saturday.

“We need to start like we did against Beckenham,” said Greenhalgh, whose team will host Sittingbourne on Tuesday. “Something we have been good at this season is putting on good home performances.

“But the vital thing is getting three points.”

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