New Margate captain Harry Hudson played a key role in convincing Ibrahim Olutade to join for the new season.

Ex-Maidstone, Tonbridge and Folkestone forward Olutade is one of several new faces as player-boss Ben Greenhalgh prepares for life in Isthmian South East.

Olutade said: “I have got a good mate - the skipper, Harry Hudson.

"Every season he has been at Margate, he has always tried to get me down there.

“I have always kept in contact with him and Ben has always tried to sign me.

“Ben then got in touch at the end of the season and was saying what I wanted to hear.”

Olutade, 26 next month, and 23-year-old Hudson - handed the armband after the departure of Sam Blackman - first came across one another while at Longmead.

“I was with Harry at Tonbridge,” he recalled. “That’s how I met him.

"When I heard he was skipper, I was buzzing.”

Olutade will not only be managed by Greenhalgh, 32, but will also line up alongside the playmaker.

He said: “I’ve always played against Margate and played against Ben. I knew him from when he was skipper.

“I’ve always said Ben was a quality player.

"That’s another reason why I wanted to come.”

Olutade started last season with a hat-trick for Invicta in a 4-0 win at Wingate & Finchley, only to fall down the pecking order and leave last November.

He arrived at Leatherhead this February and helped them make the Isthmian South Central play-offs, where they lost 3-1 in the final to Marlow.

“Everyone that knows me knows that last season wasn’t the greatest,” Olutade admitted. “But, towards the end of the season, I went back to Leatherhead and finished the season quite strongly.”

Winger Kadell Daniel is set to depart while Gate have moved to sign 28-goal striker Lukas Franzen-Jones from Lancing to replace 20-goal Steve Cawley, who will also be moving on from Hartsdown Park.

The club have also retained defender Lewis Knight.