Terry Brown said Margate fell victim to a 'perfect storm' against Weston-super-Mare on Saturday, but he refused to make any excuses after a fourth successive home defeat in Vanarama National League South.

Margate have not scored at Hartsdown Park since the 1-1 draw with Truro on opening day, and Brown feels his squad, and in particular, his forward players, are suffering from a serious lack of belief at home.

Brown, whose side have just two points from a possible 18 at home, said: "That pattern of the game today is very similar to nearly all the home games we've had.

"We started off not very well, and didn't get to grips with their system. They got behind us down the flanks, and got two early goals. We changed things much earlier than I would have liked but I felt we had to because we weren't coping.

"We then had an hour to get the game back and what tends to happen here, is that teams are well organised. I thought Weston did exceptionally well.

"They had five behind the ball, with the back five, and then you stick (another) two in front of them - that's seven, and they also had three dangerous players up front.

"It was like the perfect storm in the first half hour although I did feel we weathered that storm and could have probably have got a couple of goals in the first half."

Brown admits Margate's lack of goals at home is giving him real cause for concern, and he knows it is also weighing heavily on the minds of his players. Saturday's defeat left the Blues languishing in 18th place.

He added: "We've scored one goal here all season - in the first game - we've lost to teams below us in the league and that's a big burden on the front runners and a big burden on the central midfielders who create and score goals but it's not bad luck.

"We lost today because they (Weston) came and did a good job on us - and fair play to them for that. We've just got to try and turn that around on Tuesday (when they face Tonbridge in the Kent Senior Cup).