Ramsgate 1 Godalming 0

An almost cloudless sky heralded the Rams’ last home game of the month against Godalming Town, who started 2 slots below the Rams, for a real mid-table clash.

For the first 45 minutes the visitors had the sun behind them, and looked the more likely to score with Rishi Nankani’s pace down the left flank causing real problems for the Rams’ defence, with Jack Smelt having to be quick-witted to push three of his volleys out for corners. Gabriel Odunaike and Gavin Smith also had chances for the Gs, but Smelt was equal to every challenge and on his way towards another clean sheet. The Rams had a number of chances before the interval too, the best falling to Aaron Beech, whose volley on the turn in the 37^th minute was on stopped by an incredible save by Jamie Norris, while 5 minutes later his diving header onto a corner was deflected just wide by a lucky defender’s leg.

In the 2^nd half the Rams stepped up a gear and, after a relatively even first half, started creating more chances. Within 10 minutes of the restart Stuart Vahid had broken through the Gs’ defence but Norris was quick off his line to challenge and Vahid’s effort went just wide. Less than a minute later and Vahid was through into the area again, but a desperate trip from behind left the referee with no hesitation in pointing to the spot, from which Mark Lovell made no mistake. In the 69^th minute a deep Ramsgate corner was headed back across the box, where Liam Quinn let fly but his volley went just wide of the far post. As the game progressed Mitchell Sherwood became livelier up the right flank, delivering some dangerous crosses into the middle from the corner, but Lovell and Vahid could not find a way past Norris. Godalming brought on fresh legs in the shape of Matt Powell and Chris Kiganda, and looked to threaten with fast counters by Quinn marshalled the Rams’ defence well, and with Smelt in good form a clean sheet looked likely. As the game went into stoppage time a great interchange between Lovell and Sherwood saw the ball reach Beech clear of his marker in the area, and although he had time to set his left foot volley Norris pulled another great save out of the bag, but the Rams had done enough to take all three points.

Ramsgate: Jack Smelt, Ollie Gray, James Gregory, Luke Wheatley, Liam Quinn, Ben Laslett (c), Mitchell Sherwood, Aaron Beech (Curtis Winnett 93), Mark Lovell, Simon Pettit, Stuart Vahid. Unused Subs: Joe Taylor, George Amber, Luke Furness and Brett Mills.

Godalming: Jamie Norris, Stuart Harte, Miles Mitchell, James Evans (Chris Kiganda 76), Antonio Simeone (Matt Powell 83), Damian Smith, Brett Cooper, Gavin Smith (c), Gabriel Odunaike, Steve Sargent, Rishi Nankani. Unused Subs: Yinka Salami and Neil Baker.

 Attendance 163

And of course today’s game was our Ryman Red Nose Day game where, in addition to playing with red match balls, we had a youth penalty shoot-out for the Under 11s, 12s and 13s. The finalists, who pitted their skills against Under 15 ‘keeper Harry Kirky at half-time were Mitchell Laing and Gianni Birch from the Under 13s, Ollie Harris and Michael Curtis from the Under 12s, and Scott Roddam from the Under 11s, with Mitch Laing the overall winner with 3 out of 3.