New Margate manager Mark Stimson already knows a fair amount about the players he has inherited as he aims to turn the club’s fortunes around.

Former Gillingham boss Stimson has been appointed as Reece Prestedge’s successor and started his time in charge of the Isthmian Premier outfit with a 1-0 home loss to Carshalton last weekend.

Stimson had spent five years with Gate’s divisional rivals Hornchurch prior to his summer departure and only recently left Isthmian North outfit Grays Athletic.

In his time with the Urchins, he has come up against Margate on plenty of occasions and, therefore, has a head start as he aims to learn about his new charges.

He said: “I’ve had a couple of good games against Margate.

“That helps because I got to know the players a little bit. It’s always been a tough place to go.

“Now, I need to find out a lot more about them.”

The 55-year-old was beaten in his first fixture at the helm at Hartsdown Park through a stunning strike by midfielder Bradley Williams, despite the hosts twice going close to scoring themselves.

But Stimson, in charge at Priestfield from 2007 to 2010, took positives from the performance as the struggling side’s winless run extended to nine matches.

“You don’t want to lose any game,” he said. “We knew it would be a difficult game.

“Both teams, at the moment, are not getting the results the club would like. It would have been great to get a win. But the performance wasn’t bad.

“The performance was positive. The performance and effort were there.

“Sometimes you need a little bit of luck, and we hit the crossbar and had one cleared off the line. There were some positives to take out of it - as strange as that might sound.

“We just need to go again now.”

While Gate are at the wrong end of Isthmian Premier, the club have previously enjoyed success at the level and been competitive in National League South.

“As high as possible,” replied serial FA Trophy winner Stimson when asked where he envisaged the club would get to in the long run.

“It’s been at this level - and above.

“But there’s a lot of others that have played higher in this division as well. We just have to pick things up and move it on.”

He intends to bolster his squad, particularly in attacking areas, but won’t rush to bring anyone in.

“I think the squad does need a couple of players. The board is aware,” he admitted.

“In terms of areas of the pitch, maybe attacking areas. But they’re the hardest ones to get.”

Ben Greenhalgh started for Margate against Carshalton. The influential playmaker had been player-assistant under Prestedge and, while he’ll have a different role now, Stimson still sees the 31-year-old as a key man - on and off the field.

He said: “Ben is massive for us.

“Ben, first and foremost, is a fantastic player with a great left foot. He has done well for the club in the past and I’m sure he will still be a big part of the club.

“We have had a couple of good chats with him. His title may have changed but what we want from Ben is for him to keep performing on the pitch. Then, he can help out as much as he wants off the pitch.”

Coming in as Gate’s new assistant is the experienced Colin Reid.

The UEFA A-Licence coach’s CV includes roles as Academy manager/coach at West Ham and Tottenham, where he worked with players such as Ledley King, Peter Crouch, Mark Noble, Glen Johnson, James Tomkins, Anton Ferdinand and Kieran Richardson.

More recently, he delivered sessions to Poland’s national team.

“Colin is someone I’ve known for 20 or 25 years,” noted Stimson.

“He has been around. He knows all levels of football. I’m sure he will be a help to me.

“At the end of the day, we’re both here to help Margate get up the table and make sure that the club has a fantastic 2024.”

Stimson is also happy to have a free midweek ahead of a busy festive period.

He said: “The players have played a lot of games lately and some picked up knocks on Saturday.

“We have got to balance things there. As much as we want to be out there training as much as possible, the most important thing is the game on Saturday. The lads need to perform on the Saturday and not the Thursday or Friday.

“That’s the balance we need to find with their work commitments and festive events.”

Relegation-threatened Margate return to home action against third-bottom Kingstonian, who are eight points behind them but have two league games in hand, this Saturday.

“In this league - whether it’s the first game of the season, 10th, 15th or the last - they’re all big games,” suggested Stimson.

“We have to break it all down. We just need to make sure we’re focusing on that one game.

“I think we will play worse than we did on Saturday and probably win. That’s just the nature of the game. Thursday night (training) was fantastic from the boys.

“Saturday, we couldn’t ask for much more - there were just some opportunities that we didn’t take.

“But hopefully, we make opportunities again, take them this week and get the result.”