17 April – Youth Round-Up

A few youth teams still have to finish their 2010/11 campaigns. No games for the Kent Youth League Under 18s or the Under 14s today, while the Under 13s finished their League winning season with a strong victory over Dover Athletic. In the East Kent Youth League the Under 12s won at Deal Town Rangers and the Under 12 A team were victorious at Folkestone Invicta Youth, while the Under 11s were without a game today.

Kent Youth League

The Under 18s and Under 14s were both without a game today, but still have anpther one to go. The Under 18s slipped into 2^nd place in the League however, as Folkestone moved into top spot after beating Dover Athletic.

The Under 13s played their last game of the season against Dover Athletic at Southwood this afternoon. Having clinched the League Championship last week against Herne Bay, the lads finished on a high beating Dover 11-1.

East Kent Youth League

The Under 12s were away to Deal Town Rangers and after a closely fought first half, with both teams creating chances to score, Deal led at the break 1–0 up following a mistake in the Rams’ defence. The Rams were still confident going into the 2^nd half but it did not take long for Deal to double their lead and things were looking very bleak for Ramsgate. However, this setback seemed to do the trick as they were stirred into action for what turned out to be one of their best performances of the season. Sam Percival started things off by getting on to the end of a cross and rifling the ball home. Philipos Stamatiou scored from the penalty spot after a Deal player handled the ball in their area. This was closely followed by Zak Ward who beat 2 players and then fired the ball home for Ramsgate’s 3^rd. The 4^th was a peach of a goal with Brad Kelly laying the ball out wide, Michael Curtis playing it up the line to Percival who supplied the cross for Stamatiou who got his 2^nd of the match by volleying the ball home. With the score at 2–4 the Rams looked as though they were about to run riot and start scoring for fun, but Deal managed to hold on and with only 10 seconds of the game remaining Deal broke through again to pull a 3^rd goal back, but they had left it too late to spoil the Rams’ afternoon.

The Under 12 A team were away to Folkestone today and they battled to take all three points. The game got off to a flying start with solid midfield passing from Owen Toller and Matt Short to Hayden Telles, who fed the ball through to Louis Clarke which resulted in a 1-0 lead within the first minute. Folkestone soon equalised when they penetrated the defence of Jack Field and Stephen Dolan and beat ‘keeper Ben Pledger. Soon after the Rams were awarded a penalty, taken by Short, which was saved by the Folkestone ‘keeper, Ryan Lewis caught the rebound but was unable to score. Accurate passing found Ollie Harris who successfully dribbled the ball around the keeper resulting in a 2-1 lead at half time. The second half once again started swiftly with Billy Munday running the ball down the wing, beating the Folkestone defence to curl the ball into the top corner of the net. The home team were quick to reply with a goal, making the score 3-2. Continued attack and strong defending gave Lewis his first of the game. Almost immediately a second penalty was awarded to the Rams and Lewis added to his tally, with a fine strike. Once again Folkestone’s perseverance paid off when they pulled back their third goal. The Rams defence of Sam Chivilo , George Lawry-Jones and Chas Day increased the pressure and, with secure passing up the wing, an open goal allowed Telles to increase the score to 6-3. In the final minutes of the game a Rams corner fell to the feet of Clarke enabling him notch up his second of the game bringing the full time score to 7-3. Brilliant team work from all the boys once again.

The Under 11s were also without a game today (but were ball boys at this morning’s Kent FA Sunday Junior Cup Final between Farriers Athletic and Spartac at Southwood).