Just not good enough. That was joint boss Mike Sandman's withering assessment of Margate's performance in their home Bostik Premier defeat to Burgess Hill Town on Saturday.

The Gate were beaten 3-2 after leading 2-0 inside 14 minutes against the side who began the day propping up the table.

Hill's win was just their second in 14 matches, but Sandmann felt the Sussex visitors were much more committed than the Blues on the day. The result saw the Blues slip to 10th in the table.

Sandmann, whose team had been unbeaten in four league games, said: "It was extremely disappointing, and just not good enough. We're up against it (with injuries), it sounds like we're making excuses but (it was) just not good enough, not enough character.

"We keep talking about having a young squad and having young players, but we keep making the same mistakes. We keep saying that's what young players are going to do but they've got to learn quicker.

"But it wasn't just the young players, we weren't good enough across the pitch today.

"They (Burgess Hill) worked extremely hard, they're certainly not the worst team we've played this year.

"I said it before they're not going to end up being bottom of the league come the end of the season if they continue like that. But it's not about them it's about us and we weren't good enough.

"I think individual players did not win their battles, they outworked us, they outfought us, man for man they won their battles all across the pitch.

"Their desire to win, you could see that when they scored their third goal, that desire to win, even at 2-0 down and we have to show that."

Alex Flisher marked his first start as a Margate player with the opening goal and then provided the long throw which Hill keeper Josh James diverted into his own net.

Sandmann described the midfielder's performance as the only positive to come out of the game saying that even at 2-0 the cracks were beginning to show.

He added: "Even then we didn't look right. They were still causing us too many problems, from start to finish.

"The two goals were just masking a really poor performance. The positive is Flish being back and being involved in the two goals, if you give him the second goal, but apart from that there's not many."

Sandmann revealed financial constraints have led to striker Stephen Okoh being released while Leroy Lita remains sidelined by a broken hand.