Cardiff make progress with Fortune-West

Margate 0 Cardiff City 3

The magic failed to work. The crowd was disappointingly less than 2,000 and in the end the Second Division title contenders, Cardiff City, won this FA Cup second-round tie at Margate's borrowed ground in Dover as if strolling on a cliff path.

But at least the Nationwide Conference club's Cup run has provided them with a substantial financial boost at just the right time. Even as late as Thursday evening there were doubts about their future if Thanet Council rejected the redevelopment of the club's own Hartsdown Park. In the event, the council approved the scheme, which will raise the stadium to Football League standards, plus the building of an 80-room hotel.

Playing all of their games in Dover has cut Margate's income by 50 per cent but the replayed first-round victory over Leyton Orient, together with a BBC fee of £40,000 for yesterday's Match of the Day highlights, has brought in £100,000, which their chairman Jim Parmenter called a "lifeline''. The manager, Chris Kinnear, could rightly say: "At least the club now has the finances and I have a team who can hold their heads high and enjoy the attention.''

Not that Cardiff began as composed as they finished. They escaped two early penalty appeals against the central defender Spencer Prior and suffered a real battering by the sturdy and none-too-fussy Margate defenders.

Robert Earnshaw, the Welsh international and scorer of a hat-trick against Queen's Park Rangers a week before, was temporarily subdued and Margate only had themselves to blame for not taking a 14th-minute lead after Greg Oates centred to John Keister, a Sierra Leone international who was unmarked in the middle of the penalty area. He embarrassingly scuffed his shot. Phil Collins quickly took over but his cracking drive did nothing more than almost split the crossbar.

Prior, who had been living dangerously against the powerful Collins, received an early booking, though his tackling was subdued by comparison with that of Margate's Lee Shearer.

It took Cardiff 28 minutes to find space in the penalty area. Peter Thorne made it count at the far post, heading in Jason Bowen's cross. The marking may not have been sufficiently alert, but Margate were not deserving of such a setback.

The goal improved Cardiff's sense of superiority. Earnshaw began to make progress by dropping off Shearer and, in the 34th minute, Margate's firefighter captain, Graham Porter, further singed the hopes of his team by giving away a free-kick just outside the penalty area. Willie Boland stepped up and penetrated the wall with sheer power and Charlie Mitten, in the Margate goal, was well beaten.

Margate's nerves began to rattle. Mitten came out to clear a back pass and completely missed the ball, which trickled just past the post. His fellow defenders welcomed the interval break.

Although there was a good run by Terry McFlynn, followed by a drive past a post from Sam Sodje and a fine header from Collins that Neil Alexander skilfully tipped over the bar, Cardiff absorbed the second-half pressure with composure.

Margate rang the changes, bringing on Adrian Clarke and Simon Beard and pushing Oates further upfield, but getting the ball forward to the ever-willing Collins became increasingly difficult.

With two minutes left Margate let in a third goal when Mitten parried Andy Campbell's shot and Leo Fortune-West tapped the ball over the line. Yet the small home crowd left happily singing: "Margate's going home.''

Margate 0 Cardiff City 3
Thorne 28, Boland 34, Fortune-West 88

Half-time: 0-2 Attendance: 1,362