Margate Football Club, originally called Margate Town, is an English
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
club based in the
seaside resort
A seaside resort is a city, resort town, town, village, or hotel that serves as a Resort, vacation resort and is located on a coast. Sometimes the concept includes an aspect of an official accreditation based on the satisfaction of certain requi ...
of
Margate
Margate is a seaside resort, seaside town in the Thanet District of Kent, England. It is located on the north coast of Kent and covers an area of long, north-east of Canterbury and includes Cliftonville, Garlinge, Palm Bay, UK, Palm Bay and W ...
,
Kent
Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...
. The club's
first team play in the . The club was known during the 1980s as Thanet United.
The club was founded in 1896 and joined the
Southern Football League
The Southern League is a football competition featuring semi-professional clubs from East Anglia, the South and Midlands of England, and South Wales. Together with the Isthmian League and the Northern Premier League it forms levels seven a ...
in 1933.
After a spell in the
Kent League after World War II the team returned to the Southern League in 1959 and remained there until 2001 when they gained promotion to the
Football Conference
The National League of English Football Clubs is a professional Association football, football league in England that consists of 72 teams, divided equally between the National League (division), National League North and National League South ...
, the highest level of English
non-League football
Non-League football describes association football, football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is ...
. Their stay at this level saw the team forced to groundshare with other clubs due to drawn-out and problematic redevelopment work at their
Hartsdown Park
Hartsdown Park is a football (soccer), football stadium located in Margate, Kent, England. It has been the home of Margate F.C. (known as Thanet United F.C. between 1981 and 1989) since 1929, apart from between 2002 and 2005, when the club was ...
stadium. The stadium has been the home of Margate FC since 1929, the same year the park itself opened to the public, and during the three years spent away from their own ground, they were expelled from the
Conference National
The National League, officially known as Vanarama National League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in England. The National League is the first division of the National League (English football), National Le ...
and subsequently relegated to the Isthmian League.
The team, nicknamed "The Gate", have to date reached the third round proper of England's premier cup competition, the
FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...
, on two occasions. On the second of these occasions they played
Tottenham Hotspur
Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Tottenham (, , , ) or Spurs, is a professional Association football, football club based in Tottenham, North London, England. The club itself has stated that it should always ...
, a
First Division team and the reigning
UEFA Cup
The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star.
Computer scientists and Mathematici ...
holders.
History
Early years
Margate Football Club was founded in 1896 as an amateur club and was originally called Margate Town,
playing friendly matches on local school grounds.
In the years before the
First World War
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
the club played in several different amateur leagues, with little success, and played at various grounds in the Margate area,
before settling on a pitch at what would later become the
Dreamland amusement park in 1912.
This ground became known as the Hall-by-the-Sea Ground,
taking its name from a local dance hall.
Inter-war years
After the First World War, Margate joined the
Kent League, but in 1923 the league suspended the team due to financial irregularities and the club promptly folded. A year later the club reformed, initially under the name Margate Town, and returned to the Kent League, still playing at Dreamland, but folded again due to heavy debts. In 1929 the club reformed again and moved to its present home at Hartsdown Park, leasing part of the park from the local council for conversion into a football stadium. Around this time Margate signed a
Dutch player, a highly unusual move in an era when it was almost unknown for Continental players to move to English clubs. Goalkeeper
Gerrit "Gerard" Keizer, who joined the Kent club from
Ajax Amsterdam
Amsterdamsche Football Club Ajax (), also known as AFC Ajax, Ajax Amsterdam, or commonly Ajax, is a Dutch professional Association football, football Football team, club based in Amsterdam, that plays in the , the top tier in Dutch football. ...
, later went on to play for
Arsenal
An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...
.
From 1934 until 1938 Margate, by now playing in the
Southern League, served as the official nursery side for Arsenal; under this arrangement the London club regularly loaned promising young players to Margate in order for them to gain match experience. In the second season of this arrangement,
1935–36, Margate reached the third round proper of the
FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...
for the first time, losing 3–1 to
Blackpool
Blackpool is a seaside town in Lancashire, England. It is located on the Irish Sea coast of the Fylde peninsula, approximately north of Liverpool and west of Preston, Lancashire, Preston. It is the main settlement in the Borough of Blackpool ...
after defeating
Queens Park Rangers
Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional association football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England. The team currently compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English f ...
and
Crystal Palace in the earlier rounds, but shortly after this the club had to step back down to the Kent League for financial reasons.
Post-war years
After the Second World War, the Gate continued to play in the Kent League under new manager
Charlie Walker, who led the team to two Kent League championships but was then controversially sacked. The team slumped during a succession of rapid managerial changes which only ended in 1950 when
Almer Hall was appointed manager, a post he was to hold for the next twenty years. Under Hall, the team won a host of local cup honours and reached the rounds proper of the FA Cup on a number of occasions, but never managed to match this success in league competition.
In
1959–60 Margate returned to the Southern League after the Kent League folded, and in
1962–63 won the Division One championship and with it promotion to the
Premier Division.
Two years later the club turned full-time professional, but this policy proved financially untenable when the team were relegated back to Division One in
1965–66. Nonetheless, they won promotion at the first attempt and returned to the Premier Division in 1967.
During the 1970s, Margate endured severe financial problems and a series of mediocre league seasons, but took part in two famous FA Cup ties. In 1971 the Gate lost 11–0 to
Bournemouth
Bournemouth ( ) is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole unitary authority area, in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. At the 2021 census, the built-up area had a population of 196,455, making it the largest ...
, with
Ted MacDougall
Edward John MacDougall (born 8 January 1947) is a Scottish former footballer who played as a forward. He was a prolific goalscorer who played for eight teams, scoring 256 goals in 535 League appearances and winning seven full international cap ...
scoring a cup record nine goals. One year later, Margate beat
Swansea City and
Walton & Hersham to set up a third-round tie against
First Division Tottenham Hotspur
Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Tottenham (, , , ) or Spurs, is a professional Association football, football club based in Tottenham, North London, England. The club itself has stated that it should always ...
, then
UEFA Cup
The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star.
Computer scientists and Mathematici ...
holders. A record crowd of around 14,500 packed into Hartsdown Park for a match which Margate lost 6–0.
In 1981 the club changed its name to Thanet United, a name which was retained until 1989 when the name reverted to Margate.
In the final season under the Thanet name, the team achieved its lowest league placing for many years, escaping
relegation
Promotion and relegation is used by sports leagues as a process where teams can move up and down among divisions in a league system, based on their performance over a season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are sometimes call ...
from the Southern League by just one place.
Conference era
In 1996, the club's centenary year, the club appointed Chris Kinnear as manager. In
1997–98 he took the team to the first round proper of the FA Cup where they played
Fulham
Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies in a loop on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea, London, Chelsea ...
in a home tie that drew a crowd of 5,100. Although the Gate took the lead, the Cottagers eventually won 2–1. The following season saw the club finally win promotion to the Southern League Premier Division, albeit only after an appeal was lodged against the league's initial refusal to allow the team promotion due to the club failing to carry out necessary ground improvements in time. The Premier Division championship followed in the
2000–01 season, and with it promotion to the
Football Conference
The National League of English Football Clubs is a professional Association football, football league in England that consists of 72 teams, divided equally between the National League (division), National League North and National League South ...
.
The
2001–02 season was Gate's first-ever season of Conference football and they finished the season in eighth place. In the
2002–03 season the team began groundsharing at
Dover Athletic's
Crabble Athletic Ground while redevelopment work took place at Hartsdown Park, but various problems stalled the planned redevelopment. On the pitch, Margate enjoyed more success in the FA Cup when, after defeating
Leyton Orient in the first round, they were drawn at home to
Cardiff City
Cardiff City Football Club () is a professional association football club based in Cardiff, Wales. It currently competes in , the third tier of the English football league system in the 2025–26 season following relegation. Founded in 1899 a ...
in the second round, but lost 3–0 at Crabble. The following season, despite finishing sixteenth, the Gate were forcibly relegated one division due to the ongoing delays and problems with the redevelopment plans for Hartsdown Park.
Margate spent the
2004–05 season in the
Conference South
The National League South, officially Vanarama National League South, is a professional Association football league in England. National League South is the second division of the National Leagues and step 2 of the NLS and sixth-highest ti ...
, now groundsharing at
Ashford Town. Amid ongoing issues with the redevelopment work, which at one point made it seem very likely the club would fold completely,
Margate were again relegated to the
Isthmian League Premier Division.
Return to Hartsdown Park

In August 2005, Margate returned to Hartsdown Park after three years away. During an indifferent season manager Kinnear was controversially suspended.
Robin Trott was placed in temporary charge as player-manager in April 2006 and, after an unbeaten five-game run, was given a one-year contract at the end of the season. After Margate narrowly missed out on the play-offs in
2006–07 the club announced that Trott was to be given a new contract for the
2007–08 season. Shortly before the end of the season, however, Trott was sacked.
His replacement,
Barry Ashby, was himself sacked two months into the
2008–09 season.
Shortly afterwards, the club narrowly avoided being subject to
High Court action over unpaid debts to
HM Revenue and Customs
His Majesty's Revenue and Customs (commonly HM Revenue and Customs, or HMRC, and formerly Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs) is a department of the UK government responsible for the collection of taxes, the payment of some forms of stat ...
.
The club finished the season in 19th position in the table and was expected to be relegated to
Division One South,
but was reprieved due to other clubs folding.
The following season, Margate again finished in the bottom four but the club again received a reprieve from relegation.
Chris Kinnear returned for a second spell to manage the team at the start of the
2011–12 season. The following season Margate were sitting at the top of the table in January, however, after much speculation, Kinnear accepted the vacant manager's position at Dover Athletic. Goalkeeper Craig Holloway was placed in temporary charge of the side, and brought in
Simon Osborn as joint manager. The club dropped from the top of the table and finished outside the play-offs. After a poor start to the
2013–14 season, Holloway resigned his role as joint manager, leaving Osborn in sole charge. Results failed to improve and Osborn was sacked at the beginning of December 2013.
In the
2014–15 season, the first full season under manager
Terry Brown, Margate finished in 3rd place in the Isthmian League Premier Division, ensuring the team's qualification for the play-offs for promotion to the
National League South
The National League South, officially Vanarama National League South, is a professional Association football league in England. National League South is the second division of the National League (English football), National Leagues and step ...
(formerly Conference South). The play-offs were delayed by a lengthy appeal against a points deduction applied to fifth-placed
Enfield Town
Enfield is a large town in north London, England, north of Charing Cross. It had a population of 333,587 in 2021. It includes the areas of Botany Bay, Brimsdown, Bulls Cross, Bullsmoor, Bush Hill Park, Clay Hill, Crews Hill, Enfield Hig ...
, but when they eventually began, Margate defeated
Dulwich Hamlet
Dulwich Hamlet Football Club is a semi-professional football club based in East Dulwich in south-east London, England. They are currently members of and play at Champion Hill.
History
The club was formed in 1893, by Lorraine 'Pa' Wilson. The ...
in the semi-finals. In the final Margate played
Hendon
Hendon is an urban area in the London Borough of Barnet, northwest London northwest of Charing Cross. Hendon was an ancient Manorialism, manor and parish in the county of Middlesex and a former borough, the Municipal Borough of Hendon; it has ...
, who had finished one place above them in the league, but a single goal from Ryan Moss gave them victory and promotion to the National League South. Following a poor start to the 2015–16 season, Terry Brown was sacked.
and replaced by Margate goalkeeper
Nikki Bull
Nikki Bull (born 2 October 1981) is an English professional Association football, footballer who was most recently the manager of Guildford City F.C., Guildford City.
During his playing career, he was a goalkeeper (association football), goalke ...
and defender Jamie Stuart until the end of that season. In April 2016 Bull was appointed first team manager, but was unable to prevent the team being relegated. As of 2021 the team continue to play in the
Isthmian League
The Isthmian League () is a regional Association football, football league covering Greater London, East of England, East and South East England, featuring mostly semi-professional clubs.
Founded in 1905 by amateur clubs in the London area, th ...
Premier Division.
Colours and crest
Margate's modern colours are blue and white, first adopted in 1949,
but the team have worn a number of other colour combinations. The club's earliest known colours were black and white, and in the 1930s the team wore amber and black.
The club's current crest is a simplified version of the coat of arms of the town of Margate, incorporating a lion conjoined to a ship's hull (a reference to the arms of the
Cinque Ports
The confederation of Cinque Ports ( ) is a historic group of coastal towns in south-east England – predominantly in Kent and Sussex, with one outlier (Brightlingsea) in Essex. The name is Old French, meaning "five harbours", and alludes to ...
) and the white horse emblem of Kent.
Margate's shirts have borne various sponsors' logos including the pop group
Bad Manners
Bad Manners are an English Two-tone (music genre), two-tone and ska Musical ensemble, band led by frontman Buster Bloodvessel. Early appearances included ''Top of the Pops'' and the live film documentary ''Dance Craze'' (1981).
They were at ...
, whose name appeared on the team's kit as part of a sponsorship deal with their record label in the late 1990s. Lead singer
Buster Bloodvessel was running a hotel in Margate at the time and actually joined the football club's board of directors. Another band,
The Libertines
The Libertines are an English Rock music, rock band, formed in London in 1997 by frontmen Carl Barât (vocals/guitar) and Pete Doherty (vocals/guitar). The band, centred on the songwriting partnership of Barât and Doherty, included John Hassall ...
, sponsored the club for the 2018–19 season after starting work on a recording studio and hotel in the town.
Stadium

The stadium in
Hartsdown Park
Hartsdown Park is a football (soccer), football stadium located in Margate, Kent, England. It has been the home of Margate F.C. (known as Thanet United F.C. between 1981 and 1989) since 1929, apart from between 2002 and 2005, when the club was ...
has been Margate's home since 1929, the club having used at least six grounds before moving to Hartsdown Park,
the same year the park itself opened to the public. Little development of the stadium took place until 2002, when the club launched an ambitious scheme to completely redevelop the site.
The club moved out and the old stadium, which was constructed mainly from timber and corrugated iron, was demolished in early 2003, but the local council disputed the plans submitted.
Although planned to be completed by August 2003, the redevelopment dragged on for three years, mired in issues regarding planning permission for the commercial facilities the club wanted to build in addition to the stadium itself.
The team spent three years ground-sharing with other Kent clubs, but club officials' failure to confirm a return date to Hartsdown led to Margate's expulsion from the
Conference National
The National League, officially known as Vanarama National League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in England. The National League is the first division of the National League (English football), National Le ...
in 2004.
In 2005 the club was finally able to return to the ground, albeit with pre-fabricated stands and temporary buildings in place.
In 2014, the club applied to the local council for permission to erect six new temporary stands.
The club's ultimate plan involved a stadium with a capacity of 5,000 forming part of a complex incorporating a hotel, fitness centre, conference centre, all-weather pitch and ten 5-a-side pitches.
Although it was announced that work on the 5-a-side pitch complex was to begin in May 2007, ground was not in fact broken for a further four months.
Finally, after a series of false starts over a nearly 20-year period, the club was able to purchase the freehold of the ground from
Thanet District Council in January 2019, leading to the club announcing plans in December 2023 for a complete redevelopment of the stadium, in conjunction with IHG Hotels, scheduled to commence in February 2024.
Supporters

In the 1920s crowds of up to 3,000 were common at Hartsdown Park, but in the modern era attendances are more modest. At the midpoint of the 2017–18 season, the team's average attendance was 507. This was third highest in the Isthmian League Premier Division behind Dulwich Hamlet and
Billericay Town. During their three seasons in the Conference National, from 2001–02 to
2003–04, the club's average home attendances were 1,233, 684, and 562.
The club has an active independent supporters' association. The fans took an active part in getting the stadium ready for the club's return in 2005.
Statistics and records

Margate's best ever league finish since the establishment of the
Alliance Premier League in 1979 was the 8th-place finish in the Conference National (level5 of the overall
English football league system
The English football league system, also known as the football pyramid, is a series of interconnected leagues for men's association football clubs in England, with five teams from Wales, one from Guernsey, one from Jersey and one from the ...
) in 2001–02. The team have twice progressed as far as the third round proper of the FA Cup, in 1935–36 and
1972–73, and reached the quarter-finals of the
FA Trophy
The Football Association Challenge Trophy, also known as the Isuzu FA Trophy for sponsorship reasons, is a men's football knockout cup competition run by and named after The Football Association (the FA) and competed by mainly National League ...
in 2001–02.
The club's biggest victory is 12–1, achieved against
Deal Cinque Ports in the FA Cup first qualifying round in 1919 and against
Erith & Belvedere in the
Kent League in the 1927–28 season.
[ The Gate's heaviest defeat was 11–0 against ]AFC Bournemouth
AFC Bournemouth ( ) is a professional association football club based in Kings Park, Boscombe, a suburb of Bournemouth, Dorset, England. The club compete in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. ...
in the FA Cup first round on 20 November 1971.[
The highest recorded attendance at Hartsdown Park was 14,169 for the visit of Tottenham Hotspur in the FA Cup in 1972–73. Margate's all-time appearance record holder is Bob Harrop, who played 564 times.] Martin Buglione holds the record for most career goals with 158.[ Jack Palethorpe holds the record for the most goals scored in a single season, having scored 66 in the 1929–30 season.]
Managers
Margate's first known manager was Arthur Graves, who was installed as manager when Margate Town was reformed in 1929. By far the club's longest-serving manager was Almer Hall, who was manager for twenty years from 1950 until 1970. Several former professional players have managed the club, the most high-profile being the former Welsh international Terry Yorath.
Current squad
Source:
Current staff
:''As of 8 August 2024''
Honours
Rivalries
Margate's main traditional rivalry is with Thanet neighbours Ramsgate
Ramsgate is a seaside resort, seaside town and civil parish in the district of Thanet District, Thanet in eastern Kent, England. It was one of the great English seaside towns of the 19th century. In 2021 it had a population of 42,027. Ramsgate' ...
, with whom Margate contest the Thanet derby. Matches between the two teams drew large crowds in the 1960s, but the rivalry has waned in subsequent decades, largely due to the two teams rarely playing in the same league. Another of Margate's rivals is Dover Athletic. Despite similarly meeting rarely in competitive games over recent years, both teams were in the Conference in the 2001–02 season, when the two games between Margate and Dover were watched by a combined total of over 6,000 spectators. The game played at Margate's Hartsdown Park stadium drew a crowd of 3,676, and 2,325 were in attendance for the game at Dover's Crabble stadium.
References
External links
*
*
{{Isthmian League
Football clubs in England
Football clubs in Kent
Association football clubs established in 1896
1896 establishments in England
Margate
Kent Football League (1894–1959)
Isthmian League clubs
Southern Football League clubs
Southern Counties East Football League
National League (English football) clubs