DOVER’S Crabble ground will seem more like home than ever for Margate on Saturday.

Chris Kinnear’s side are playing at Dover this season while their own Hartsdown Park is redeveloped.

Margate take on Telford, who are three points behind them in the bottom half of the Nationwide Conference, needing victory to avoid being sucked into the season’s emerging relegation battle.

But they will be relieved at least to be back on Kentish soil after a frustrating 600-mile round trip to lose at Scarborough last weekend.They were fatally slow to make an impact on the match after the arduous journey.

Club secretary Ken Tomlinson said it was a fact of the harsh economic times for football that Margate were unable to stay overnight on journeys to far-off rivals, unlike several other Conference clubs.

Morecambe, and former Nationwide League sides like Scarborough, Chester, Doncaster and Halifax, were among a number of clubs able to fund Friday night hotel stays.

Mr Tomlinson said: “There’s no disputing that a side that has stayed overnight has a slight advantage over a club that has had to make a long journey such as ours."

Kinnear will need to ensure his players’ minds do not drift to the following week’s trip to play Leyton Orient in the first round of the FA Cup.

Terrace tickets for that match will also be on sale at Crabble from 1.30pm on Saturday, priced £12 for adults, £7 concessions.

Any remaining tickets will be sold at the Hartsdown Park offices from Monday.