Rams 2 Whitehawk 2

Today Sussex side Whitehawk visited Southwood for the first time, and with only 4 games left Ramsgate needed to take maximum points from their 3rd-placed opponents to keep their now remote play-off hopes alive. 

Whitehawk started strongly and within a few minutes Sam Gargan turned on Stuart Tuck’s freekick, which had Jack Smelt at full stretch to parry the shot wide for a corner. The Rams soon got into their flow however, and in the 15^th minute Mitchell Sherwood’s corner found Mark Lovell at the edge of area who powered his shot clear of ‘keeper Lloyd Anderson to take the lead. In the 27^th minute Gargan again had a great strike, but Smelt saved at point blank range and then recovered swiftly to block Pat Harding’s follow up. A minute later and the scores were levelled when Liam Quinn turned a corner into his own net, while 2 minutes later an alleged back pass saw Harding fire into a crowded goal line from next to the penalty spot, but the ball was cleared without too many problems. The Rams re-established their lead in the 44^th minute when James Gregory’s forward ball found Lovell on the left, who squared to Stuart Vahid who broke forward between two defenders to slot the ball past the oncoming Anderson and into the far corner.

In the 2^nd half the Hawks again started strongly but the Rams had the first real chance 4 minutes in, when Sherwood outflanked a defender on the right before cutting inside and, as the ‘keeper came out of his area to meet him, put the ball past him from 30 yards but it went just outside the far post. The Hawks had another good chance on the hour mark, when Josh Jones’ freekick reached Paul Armstrong, whose shot from the 6 yard line was blocked by Gregory, with the second ball also cleared from the goal line although the linesman flagged for an offside. In the 72^nd minute Ben Godfrey’s shot was parried by Smelt, and although Gargan tried to get the ball back into the goalmouth, Ramsgate skipper Ben Laslett was swift to win back the ball and take it wide to clear up the wing. Two minutes later and Ramsgate hit the woodwork, when Aaron Beech’s freekick from 40 yards on the left was met by the head of Luke Wheatley by the far post, but the ball went off the outside of the upright. The Rams went close to sealing the win again another two minutes later, when good interplay between Lovell and Vahid saw the ball sit up well for Laslett just outside the area, but the skipper’s strike with his left went outside the far post. A minute later and the Hawks got their equaliser, when a cross from Wes Tate was headed in at the far post by Godfrey. The Rams kept chasing to restore their lead, and two minutes later Beech spotted a gap when taking a freekick 30 yards out, which Anderson couldn’t hold on to, with Sherwood’s resulting corner being headed just over by Quinn. Then in the 89^th minute Vahid outpaced the defence on the right flank, and although his volley from the edge of the area was on target, this time Anderson’s handling was solid. Five minutes of stoppage time was played, but the scores remained level and the points shared.

Ramsgate: Jack Smelt, Ollie Gray, James Gregory, Luke Wheatley, Liam Quinn, Ben Laslett (c), Mitchell Sherwood, Stuart Vahid, Mark Lovell, Aaron Beech, Paul Axon (Simon Pettit 81). Unused Sub: Ryan Harker, Joe Taylor, Curtis Winnett and Brett Mills.

Attendance 152