By pitchside reporter Andy Mason
Ramsgate (1) 1 V Corinthian Sports (2) 3
28 Ajayi 20 Smith
45 Housego (p)
85 Holland
A pleasant floodlight evening at the WW Martin Stadium as Ramsgate prepared to face Corinthians. Having lost to the visitors in the away fixture, Ramsgate were looking for revenge with the chance to also move up to second in the table. The fans were looking forward to another cracking performance from their young heroes.
Corinthian got us underway with the Rams kicking toward the airport end. Ramsgate started brightly putting the visitors on the back foot, Jadama got off a good early range finder just over the bar.
In the 9th Rams won a free kick just to the right of goal. Karne-Miller stepped forward, his kick again just over the bar prompting Ohs and arrrs from the large crowd.
Corinthian settled and were closing down Rams at pace and causing numerous missed passes and stopping the Rams from playing. In the 18th Ajayi broke through but just as he was about to shoot Bath got back to challenge and knock the ball away.
In the 20th Corinthians attacked, Smith went through still with a little to do and fired home a deserved well worked goal. On the balance of play at this stage Rams could not argue going one down. Would conceding spur the Rams into action? The answer was yes. In the 24th Bate down the left cut in and should have squared the ball but took the wrong option, shooting into the side netting.
At the 26th Jadama and Ajayi linked up but another good chance was defended well. Bath and Billings at the heart of the Corinthians defence seemed able to block everything. In the 28th after numerous corners the ball came into the box finding Ajayi who controlled on his chest and swivelled, knocking the ball in for the equaliser.
At the 33rd Corinthian had another promising attack. Aboagye put his body in the way to thwart this attack, eventually hoofed up field by Coyle. Corinthian were still closing down with the same vigour as at the start of the half and Rams did not have an answer. They tried to build from the back but the front three for Corinthian were quickly in place to stop Rams moving the ball forward.
At the 43rd Miller for Corinthian saw Russell slightly off his line and had a long range pop, lobbing toward goal. Russell backpeddled and managed to lift the ball over his bar. In the 45th Corinthian broke a Rams offside trap and Oloyede going through was brought down in the box- result penalty. Housego fired home to restore the visitor’s lead.
Second half we expected Rams to come out firing, but it was the visitors that were controlling the game and maintaining their high press and closing down. Chances for Ajayi and Bate but everything Rams tried was not coming to fruition. Even the substitutions were making no difference to this match.
At the 80th Ajayi won a free kick but a Dunn cross shot was punched away by Prall in the Corinthian goal, one of the few things he had to do, having marshalled his defence so well.
The 86th and Holland tried his luck from range, the ball skidded off the surface and went under Russell’s dive to give the visitors their third and close out the match.
Corinthian came with a game plan, stuck to it for the 90 or so minutes and nullified everything the Rams tried. A well deserved win for a very well drilled side.
Teams:
Ramsgate All Red
1Jacob Russell, 2Jerald Aboagye (off 86), 3Karn Miller-Neave (off 85), 8Mitchell Chapman, 9Oliver Bate, 10Ashley Miller (off 68), 14Joshua Ajayi, 16Jamie Coyle, 17Ben Fitchett, 6Denzelle Olopade, 20Tijan Jadama
Subs: 11William Hoare, 4Lee Prescott, 5Callum Emptage (on 85), 12Eddie Carrington(on86), 7Bobby Dunn (on 68)
Corinthian Sports Green & white hoops
1Aiden Prall, 2Jack Holland, 3Frankie Morgan, 4Jack Bath, 5James Billings, 6Lekan Majoyegbe , 7Josh James, 8Jamie Miller (off 66), 9Harvey Smith , 10Oscar Housego, 11Emmanuel Oloyede (off 90)
Subs: 12A. Jack Billings, 14Joshua Stirman (on 90), 15Brandon Davey (on 66), 16Charles Edmundson, 17Ryan Atkinson
Cards:
Rams 71st Miller-Neave
Corinthian 60th Smith 79th Majoyegbe
RFSA Man of the Match: Josh Ajayi
Attendance: 457
Match entertainment: 4*