Introduction by Duncan Berrington:
Three years
Three years of being the nearly men
Three years of waiting
Three years of heartbreak
Today at Hythe Town, Ramsgate put to rest the demons of the past three seasons and secured only the fifth promotion in their history.
The understandable anxiety of the Rams faithful ended up being unfounded as the team put in a dominant performance to brush aside Hythe Town to spark jubilant scenes.
Report by Darius Sarrafan:
As my esteemed colleague said – the ghosts of the past were finally laid to rest as the Rams cruised to a 4-0 win at Reachfields to secure the Isthmian League South East Division title. Around 1000 Rams fans made the journey down to Hythe, and the celebrations continued even after fans returned to the WW Martin Community Stadium – with the party lasting until the small hours of the morning!
Manager Ben Smith made two changes from the side that saw off Three Bridges last week, with Joe Ellul and Billy Munday returning to the starting eleven in place of Aaron Barnes and Lewis Gard.
The game began with a carnival atmosphere within the ground – and the volume was cranked right up as the away side got off to a dream start as they lead with just 124 seconds on the clock. Joe Ellul drove with the ball out of defence, finding Roarie Deacon inside. He clipped a ball for Benny Bioletti to run onto down the right wing, and his cross was superbly steered home by TJ Jadama to spark wild celebrations amongst players and supporters alike.
Jadama started the game like a man possessed, and he had a header go straight into the arms of Hythe goalkeeper Charlie Wealands in the seventh minute before driving to the edge of the box with the ball and hitting a shot wide shortly after. Bioletti then dragged a shot wide of goal having fashioned an opening for himself in the 17th minute, before former Ram Louie Procopi headed wide from a corner for Hythe.
The home side had a decent spell in the game after this, showing that they could cause the Rams problems in the process. Anthony Adesite could only divert a knockdown wide of the far post after a cross came in from the right on 29 minutes, and soon after Javaun Splatt saw a shot cleared off the line by Jay Leader soon after. Deacon volleyed a superb effort just over the bar for the away side in between the Cannons’ two sights of goal.
The scoreline remained 1-0 to Ramsgate as the teams headed into the half time break, and the Rams made a blistering start to the second half – doubling their lead in the 48th minute. Deacons set piece delivery was spot on yet again, and Leader was on hand to power home a header from eight yards for his ninth goal of the season.
Alfie Paxman stung the hands of Wealands from a free kick seven minutes later, before Hythe had a free kick opportunity of their own. Splatt forced Hadler into a smart save from 20 yards, and Adesite could only divert the rebound wide of goal. Joe Taylor hit a shot straight at Wealands in the 64th minute before shortly after Bioletti forced the Hythe custodian to save smartly at his feet after he had found an opening in the box.
Substitute Josh Ajayi had a lovely performance from the bench, and he provided two great assists for the Rams’ final two goals. Firstly in the 79th minute, he crossed for Paxman to tap home from a couple of yards after Jadama sent him clear down the right, before cutting back for Taylor to notch his 48th goal of the season in the final minute of the 90.
The final whistle sounded shortly afterwards to spark scenes of mass celebration amongst the team and their huge travelling army of supporters. It was a sweet, sweet moment for manager Ben Smith, who has done an incredible job in the two seasons he has been in charge – and how his name will forever go down in club folklore as well as the players and management team.
With the league title, and promotion with it, now secured, one could be mistaken for thinking that it’s now time for the Rams take their foot off the gas. With local rivals Margate the visitors to a sold out WW Martin Community Stadium on Easter Monday though, you can bet your bottom dollar they won’t be just yet!
Ramsgate: Hadler (Newcombe), Deacon (Oluwatimilehin), Ellul (Barnes), Leader, Clifford, Martin, Munday, Jadama, Bioletti (Ajayi), Paxman (Garrett), Taylor.
Star man: TJ Jadama.
They will come back down next season. 😃
The Rams will stay up easily , u Margate fans need to start thinking of yourselves and try to get promoted by the play offs . But u need to get past burgess hill & possibly sittingbourne so I doubt you’ll do it . I last read Margate are in big debt and the club is a shambles off the field I was told that by a work colleague who is a steward at your club so give it a rest and support your own club instead of worrying what the rams are doing .
I’ve always been a Margate supporter, and best of luck to Ramsgate, but don’t start stupid slagging off Margate, we’ve been up and down like many other teams , the important thing is that football in Thanet continues. You may have read stories about debt, but it’s a bit more complicated, I think the club owes the owner so in effect he owes the money to himself . But what do I know !
Lawson has really done a great job of pulling these fans away from watching Man United and Liverpool on the tele
Now there’s a lovely helping of sour grapes! And your incisive evidence for such a statement us what exactly?
That Ramsgate has always been a Liverpool stronghold and that the club took 10 supporters to away games for years
Seb
Your right the last game I went to my wheels on my car was nicked. And just like Liverpool only win the league when there’s no pressure and no challengers;)
Well done
From a Margate can well done ,hope we join you through playoffs
Would be nice if all Margate fans were like well done , but no u get the idiots like comment above from Paul the voller , seems a bit jealous that were promoted . And I agree would be nice to have Margate promoted but play offs are not easy and Margate need to take 1 game at time , Margate fans need to think of there club instead of worrying what rams are doing . Good luck in play offs .
They’ve bottled it massively the last two seasons!
Ramsgate need to be careful about finances
I know and lot of people who have stepped away from the club since this started and I was once a fan until the local idiots took an interest in the team because they started winning!
I now follow results from afar now and hope they move on up and up.
Maybe Lawson will now improve the outside of the ground as it’s the same shambles it was when I played there in the 80s/90s!!
I pretty much doubt that though!
Showing to be successful obviously brings in a few idiots who just come for the booze , our two teams share the idiots , they are just loud and foul mouthed and don’t care a lot about the football , the vast majority of gate fans wish Ramsgate well next season and hopefully we will be playing each other again soon.
1-3,1-3 1-3
I do believe R T B was so busy swearing his head off he missed the final score 1-4. Well played Margate.
No fred, I do not swear and was not at the game ,not all fans swear and I was out with my grandchildren for the afternoon
I read about Rams games here each week, what a happened to the last report on the Margate game.
Teams send in their sport reports and nothing was sent for that game. I might see if I can take the MFC one from their website.