Player-boss Ben Greenhalgh will come up against one of his predecessors as Margate hit the road for the first time this pre-season.

Gate will start a run of four successive away warm-up games ahead of the new Isthmian South East campaign at National League South Tonbridge on Saturday, having played their first four friendlies at Hartsdown Park.

Greenhalgh has played under Tonbridge manager Jay Saunders at Margate, the pair also working together with Maidstone.

“When I first worked with Jay, it was only for a few games,” recalled Greenhalgh, whose team also visit last season’s Southern Counties East Premier Division play-off finalists Corinthian next Tuesday.

“He was coming on as a player. I’ve seen him in that environment.

“At the same time, now he’s a very experienced non-league manager. I would be naïve not to take some of his managerial style while adding my own tweak to it.

“Going to Tonbridge will be a different ball game with the size of the pitch and the fact that they’re two divisions above us.

“He will not take it too easy on us! I’m looking forward to playing against them.

“The one thing that Jay was the best at was building a changing room. That’s the environment we’re creating.

“If we can get the tactics right, I know we can be pretty successful.”

Margate came from behind to run out 4-1 weekend winners against Isthmian North side Concord thanks to second-half goals from Brandon Davey, man-of-the-match Jordan Ababio, Lukas Franzen-Jones and Vinnie Bowman - four days on from a 2-1 loss to Isthmian Premier Dover when Ibrahim Olutade scored.

On the Concord victory, Greenhalgh reflected: “It was a really good work-out.

“We changed the team a little bit. We gave people minutes who we wanted to look at a little more in the first half.

“To be honest, I think it showed in the first 15 minutes. There were a couple of mistakes in there that we wouldn’t be happy with in the league - and one of them led to the goal.

“But we played some brilliant football towards the end of the first half. Then, we went into the second half, making a couple of changes, and did really well.

“Brandon Davey is a player I’ve had at Dartford in the last few years and I helped to send him to Corinthian. He absolutely lifted us.

“I felt like we could have had a lot more goals in the end, no disrespect to Concord, but every single one of our attackers was firing on all cylinders, which was good.”

Ababio shone against Concord despite Greenhalgh asking him to adapt to a slightly new role.

Greenhalgh, whose side are due to host Dartford tonight, said: “I spoke to him in the summer.

“He had a lot of offers - especially from rivals to us - but I’ve played as a winger for my whole career and think that helped convince him we can get the best out of him.

“We have tried him off the left, which is something he isn’t used to doing. But Saturday was the game where it sort of really clicked for him.”

Greenhalgh is also remaining open-minded about the long-term plans for those who are on trial.

“We technically have got three trialists who have been in during pre-season and getting game time,” he said.

“There’s a couple of under-23s that we have used, as well. The good part about that is we can look at them over the year.

“Regarding the trialists, I think they will be positive discussions. But at the same time, we need to manage them correctly and I’m not going to force it.

“If it happens, that’s great. If not, hopefully, their decision allows them to play more football somewhere else.”

Margate will learn their Isthmian South East fixtures for the new season on Thursday at 6pm.