Margate's defeat by East Thurrock on Saturday summed up their season for Jay Saunders.

Gate lost to a second-half goal from Frankie Merrifield at Hartsdown Park and remain 12th in the Isthmian Premier.

Saunders' side had won 2-1 at Bognor and thrashed Carshalton 5-1 in the Velocity Trophy in their previous two games.

They were looking to build on those performances but it was a disappointing afternoon for the Gate boss, who felt his forwards should have done better.

He said: "It's frustrating. That's the story of our season in that we can't get that consistency.

"That's key and we haven't been able to get that.

"I look at Bognor last week and the boys ran their socks off, we had quality on the ball and we looked good.

"Even Carshalton, I know both sides mixed it up but we looked bright again, but then today we looked lethargic after the first 10 or 15 minutes.

"Every time we take a couple of steps forward, we take a couple back.

"I said all along, it's a new squad and would take time to get right but it's still frustrating.

"I said to the boys before the game, can we get a little run together and really try and push.

"First half we were OK, I thought we started quite well, but we found it tough against the wind in the second half.

"We didn't do enough in the final third.

"Every week, either our defence does OK and the front lads are off it or the front lads are on it and the defence give away cheap goals.

"We rarely get that consistency of a good, full performance.

"We lost Jack Richards (groin), who's been outstanding the last two games, but I look at our front four today and we've got Kadell Daniel, Adem Ramadan, Roman Campbell and Noel Leighton, plus Elliott Reeves off the bench.

"They should have more than enough to do the job but I can't say any of them were on their game.

"That's frustrating because they're as good as anything in this league but no one gave enough."

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