Margate manager Terry Brown was full of compliments for Hendon after Saturday's game despite his side coming out winners.

He said, "I think Hendon were the better team today and we didn't deserve to win. The passion, honesty and commitment of the Hendon team today was tremendous and they - and the management team - are a credit to the club."

On hearing Mr Brown's observations, Gary McCann said, "It was very nice of Terry to say that. He said much the same to me and it means a lot when it comes from a manager with his level of experience.

"Unfortunately, in the last five games of this season we have not defended well enough to win football games. We have played well enough overall, but our defending, especially late in games, wasn't good enough.

"In the grand scheme of things I think we have done well to finish eighth. This was our first season at Harrow and although we have enjoyed our time at Earlsmead (they have made us more than welcome), I think the first season at a new ground, and this goes for any change of home, is a bit like playing every game away.

"Our performances in the last half dozen games warranted a great deal more in terms of points, but we have had to reshuffle our troops in key positions too much. We didn't have settled midfield or defence in the last month of the season, with a series of niggling injuries disrupting us, but almost every team was in the same position as us.

"However, I am not going to use that as an excuse for the poor defending as a team that has cost us dearly in the run of home defeats. This was much more down to mental tiredness and physical exhaustion which led to the mistakes.

"But the players have been excellent all season and on Saturday, every single one of them gave me everything they had. I could not have asked for more in terms of effort and commitment, and it was so disappointing to concede another late goal to lose the game.

"Maybe there was a bit of tiredness involved, but we showed what we can do by the way we came back from going 2-1 down. For the third or fourth time in recent games we have come up against a goalkeeper who has been man of the match and Nikki Bull kept them in the game with some fantastic saves. If it hadn't been for him, we would have been out of sight at the end of the first half."