Nikki Bull may be facing a goalkeeping crisis at Margate. Speaking to the press after his side’s 4-0 loss at Ebbsfleet he admitted that he may need to come out of retirement temporarily.

19 year old Lewis Ward, on loan from Reading was injured in the first half of the opening Kent derby of the season and returned to the changing room at half time unable to remember how he sustained the injury.

“He came in and said he had no recollection of how he got injured” Bull explained. “He’s a highly regarded prospect, he’s not from out club so we took the decision to get him off and assess how he is”. Lewis left in an ambulance soon after telling Bull and his staff that he may have been suffering from a concussion.

“In hindsight I should have named myself on the bench” said the Margate manager who played in goal for the Thanet side before being given the managerial position at Hartsdown Park. Instead, he was forced to play defender Brett Johnson between the sticks.

Attention now turns to the future, with Bull needing to decide whether or not to try and bring another shot stopper into his side. “I think the rules for this sort of thing now is [a rest period of] 14 days, I suppose there’s always a chance I’ll get the gloves back on because finances being finances I’m not sure we’ll have the money to go out and get another goalie”.

Is Lewis is forced to sit out the next fourteen days he’ll miss Margate’s next three games, they host Hungerford Town at Hartsdown Park on Saturday before East Thurrock travel to the seaside town on the following Tuesday. The fortnight of games will be completed by a trip to Bishops Stortford, who have the same points total of six after seven games as Margate.