Terry Brown believes Saturday's Vanarama National League South home point against Truro could turn out to be one of the hardest Margate will earn this season.

The Gate were pegged back after leading and had Nikki Bull's late penalty save to thank for securing them a 1-1 draw against visitors who gave no quarter.

Brown admitted that a draw was a fair result but added: "It was an incredibly hard game for us. You cannot replicate that sort of game in a pre-season friendly. It was like Land of the Giants. We've got some big boys in there but we struggled to keep them at bay.

"Credit to Truro I thought they also tried to play,and certainly both sides were pushing for a winner at the end."

Brown felt his side would go onto win once debutant Danny Green had headed them in front on 48 minutes, but admitted Gate did not do as much as they could have to protect their advantage.

Left-back Nathan Green was caught out for Aaron Dawson's 65th minute equaliser and visiting sub Cody Cooke had at least two chances to snatch victory after the Gate had been reduced to 10 following David Hunt's red card for a penalty box foul on Isaac Vassell.

Brown explained: "My disappointment really had to be that in the last 10-15 minutes, when I know we were down to 10 men, our defending was not quite good enough.

"I'm looking for a bit more out of my left back (Nathan Green) defending on their goal and a little bit more from my centre-halves in the last 10 minutes than I got."