Rams 2 Hythe Town 0

Today it was the 1st Team’s second home fixture and, like in the first one, the visitors were League new boys. This time they were a little more familiar, being Kent League Champions Hythe Town, who seem to finding Step 4 a little tougher than they were expecting.

After a hectic start, the first real chance fell to the Rams in the 13^th minute, when Ollie Gray released Mitchell Sherwood on the halfway line and, after running through, Sherwood’s shot was blocked, but the loose ball fell to midfielder Steve O’Brien, who dinked the ball wide. Town had a chance in the 25^th minute, when Aaron Lacy’s long throw was met by Tom Parkinson, who headed it against the Rams’ bar. The game progressed with both midfields battling away, but the next chance fell to the visitors in the 38^th minute, when Lacy slipped the ball through to James Dryden, who found Nicky Barnes who square it to Ronnie Dolan unmarked in the middle, but his shot was straight at Daren Hawkes. It was the Rams who found the back of the net however, when 5 minutes later Pascal Ebigbo’s persistence on the right flank was rewarded with a throw, which Simon Pettit put into the danger area, where Mark Lovell’s flick-on header found Ebigbo with his back to goal, the striker swivelling and rifling the ball into the bottom corner of the net.

At the interval a tactical substitution saw Warren Schulz replace O’Brien, to deal with the opposition’s 4-3-3. The second half started as scrappy as the first finished, and it wasn’t until the hour mark that there was another scoring chance, when Barnes’ driving run split the Rams’ defence, but Hawkes was quick off his line to block Dryden’s shot. In the 64^th minute Joe Taylor replaced Ebigbo, whose pace seemed to be inviting mis-timed tackles. Three minutes later and the Rams nearly doubled their lead, when a low drive from 30 yds by Gareth Cornhill was only saved by a great block by ‘keeper Kieran Mann, and less than a minute later a 1-2 with Pettit from the corner by Sherwood saw the winger find Gray in the middle, but his header was straight at Mann. In the 76^th minute a miskicked clearance by Pettit scythed across the Ramsgate area to Lacy, who set up Pat Kingwell but skipper Liam Quinn was there to block his shot. In the closing minutes a foul by Dave Cook on Taylor 25 yds out saw the Hythe captain booked, while the resulting freekick by Cornhill rattled the crossbar. A inute later and captain Cook was dismissed for a 2^nd yellow, after a challenge on Schulz. As the game went into stoppage time the Rams retained possession and, after some close control battling around the Hythe defenders, Taylor managed to put a cross to Lovell in front of goal, who steadied himself before firing in the Rams’ 2^nd.

Ramsgate: Daren Hawkes, Gareth Cornhill, Luke Wheatley, Ollie Gray, Liam Quinn (c), Ben Laslett, Mitchell Sherwood (James Gregory 81), Simon Pettit, Mark Lovell, Pascal Ebigbo (Joe Taylor 64), Steve O’Brien (Warren Schulz 46). Unused Subs: Joseph Afusi and James Brown.

Attendance 262