Nikki Bull says Margate's display in Saturday's 1-0 home win over Gosport Borough has set the standard for the rest of the season.

The win, which came courtesy of Freddie Ladapo's close-range 66th minute strike, was only Margate's second of the season at Hartsdown, and lifted them up to 18th.

Bull was taking charge for the first time since Terry Brown's sacking a fortnight ago, and he said his players will need to maintain that level of performance if he is to deliver on his promise of keeping the Gate in Vanarama National League South.

Bull, who revealed he stayed up until 2am on the morning of the match watching YouTube clips of Gosport, said: "The club have placed a huge amount of faith in me and I'm fully aware that faith will evaporate if I don't get results.

"They've not given it (the manager's job) to me as a charity. They're expecting the same from me as they would any other manager.

"I have to get points, I have to get wins and I have to get us away from the bottom and we'll only do that with hard work, and commitment and every one of my players, all of my staff, gave me everything they've got today and that's the benchmark now.

"I've told them you should enjoy going home tonight knowing you have worked hard but, if you fall below that bar now, you're going to know from me because that's the bare minimum now. You've showed me you can do it.

"There were boys out there, after 85 minutes, that looked like they had just started the game and they'd covered three or four miles. Energy, how you feel it's all in the mind and my boys gave me everything today. I couldn't be more proud of them."

Ahead of the game Bull had demanded more passion, energy and commitment from the squad, and he admitted Gate might have to compromise some of their footballing principles while they attempt to pull away from the foot of the table.

He added: "It's not by chance that if you show those qualities (passion, commitment) on a football field you've got a better chance of getting results than if you don't.

"We've worked in training about being disciplined, about being compact when the other team has the ball and being solid, making ourselves hard to beat.

"I think we've been too open this season, we've given teams far too many chances and played into a lot of teams' hands. I wanted to set us up so that we re hard to beat, and that may mean compromising a bit on the football."