Steve Watt hailed Steve Brown’s tactical nous as Margate extended their unbeaten run to 10 Bostik Premier games at Brightlingsea Regent on Saturday.

Substitute Kane Haysman’s 79th-minute header proved enough to secure the Gate’s sixth straight win and afterwards boss Watt admitted much of the credit should go to assistant Brown.

He explained: “It was an important win and I’ve got to give massive credit to Steve.

“(Before the winner) he suggested we tweaked our shape, we moved (top scorer) Jordan Chiedozie out wide and put Frannie Collin more central.

“Then, after we made the change I decided to bring on Kane Haysman and it was from Jordan’s cross that Kane scored.

“Jordan wanted to play down the middle because obviously he wants to score goals but they played with three at the back and that left them quite isolated.

“The left-sided centre-back had been booked so he had to be cautious and Browny thought matching up Jordan with him could cause them problems.

“It was a great tactical observation by Steve and I think the club are lucky to have

him.

“He’s a very humble person and for me in my first managerial role, to have someone with his experience working alongside me is great.”

Margate were the only side in the top 10 to win at the weekend and while they remain third, they have now drawn level on points with second-placed Dulwich.

Watt said his team again showed terrific character at Brightlingsea given that he was missing suspended trio Tom Wynter, James Rogers and Jack Evans plus injured pair Chris Sessegnon (knee) and Ben Swift (hamstring).

Tom Mills returned to the bench after his recent knee injury but Watt revealed the full-back would only have gone on in an emergency.

He said: “The win on Saturday has given us a bit of breathing space, even on those clubs who have games in hand.

“I think it’s the third time this season we’ve had a long unbeaten run so the lads deserve huge praise.

“With the amount of players we had out they could have used it as an excuse but they didn’t they saw it as an opportunity to get three points.”