Margate have received four bids for top scorer Freddie Ladapo but boss Nikki Bull says none have come anywhere near their valuation of the player.

Bull revealed after Saturday's 1-1 home draw with Bishop's Stortford in Vanarama National League South that Margate have had two offers from a Conference club - believed to be Barrow - and two more from a Football League club.

He said Margate would never stand in the way of a player looking to further his career but equally the club are not going to let anyone leave Hartsdown Park on the cheap.

Bull explained: "We've turned down four bids for Fred. Two are from a National Conference side and two from a League 2 club but I would say they weren't bids they were insults.

"We spoke to both clubs who were interested before they made the bids. We made it quite clear where we were and they ended up submitting bids that really were only done in an attempt to unsettle the player."

Bull says he does not expect either club to come back in for Ladapo, but he would not be surprised if there continued to be interest in the 22-year-old, who has 10 goals this season

He said: "We don't want to stand in Freddie's way, we need to make that clear. I don't want to stand in the way of any of my young players.

"I want to be a manager where I can encourage my players to strive to get back into the Football League, but any offers that come in (for Ladapo) have to reflect what Margate have done for the player, and the contract that he's on.

"He's on a two-year deal. People were calling me this week saying he's up in the summer, he's not - he's got another year on his contract.

"I spoke to Bob Laslett (the chairman) and Chris Pope (the chief executive), we know what our valuation of Freddie is, and it's a fair valuation and, if a club meets that Freddie will be free to go."

Bull says he still hopes Ladapo will stay and genuinely believes his best chance of winning a move to a bigger club is to continue producing the goods for the Gate.

He added: "I had a chat with Freddie and said 'look if you keep doing what you're doing I think you will have better options in the summer than what is on the table now'."

Bull meanwhile said he felt Gate's first-half performance against Stortford was their worst since he took over from Terry Brown, but he hailed their battling spirit.

They fell behind on 63 minutes, before Lewis Taylor equalised from the spot on 84. The same player then could have won it, in the last-minute, but fired a second penalty over.

Bull said: "I'm disappointed not in the fact that we've missed a penalty at the end. I'm disappointed with the performance overall.

"The first half was probably the worst we've been, to be honest. I just felt we were never in the game. We had a clear gameplan and for some reason we never really got going.

"We just seemed flat and a bit quiet which was a surprise to me, I didn't see that coming. I think we handed the initiative to them.

"If you can start right, we showed against Chelmsford (in the last home game which they won 4-1) you can get the game won in the first 20 or 25 minutes but we didn't."

Bull said he thought Elliot Buchanan's 63rd minute opener for Stortford should have been chalked off for handball but he also felt going behind helped his side.

He added: "I think their goal probably did us a favour because it sparked us into life and it does show the resilience of the group that we can find a way of getting something from the game."