Worthing 2 Rams 0

A brave Rams fight back was thrown off course in the 70^th minute by an outrageous refereeing decision. As fleet-footed hitman Pascal Ebigbo raced past the Rebels’ defence he was blatantly tripped by the home ‘keeper Alan Mansfield. Incredibly the referee pointed for a goal kick despite the howls of protest from the Ramsgate team and supporters. After the incident both ‘keeper Mansfield and the Worthing centre back admitted that they had got away with murder and a penalty should have been awarded.  Mansfield was lucky to stay on the pitch as was Pascal Ebigbo, who was fortunate only to see yellow for his tirade at the official. Alan Mansfield then proceeded to make a fantastic save from a Simon Pettit header following an Ebigbo cross on 78, this followed a previous great save, again from a Simon Pettit header on 56. The game did not however have a happy ending for Mansfield as he was led off with what looked a nasty ankle injury after colliding, apparently innocuously, with Michael Yianni challenging for a cross. However by then it was too late for any difference to be made and substitute ‘keeper John Lansdale only had one shot to save, a well driven effort by Ebigbo.

The Rebels had started the match in the best possible way with former Whitehawk striker Jamie Brotherton giving Luke Wheatley a torrid time on the left hand side of the defence The game was only five minutes old when a cross from Steve Metcalf found  Brotherton, who had enough space to blast his effort past Darren Hawkes. Joseph Afusi almost put Mitchell Sherwood through on 6 minutes however in the 18^th minute Brotherton found space on the left and his centred ball found stand-in striker Billy Franks, who blasted home. Worthing continued to make further first half chances and Daren Hawks continued to make some excellent stops throughout the first half.

The second half saw Michael Yianni replace Afusi, who had looked out of place in a 5 man Rams midfield, and the fight back began, only to be cruelly thwarted by the referee.

Ramsgate: Daren Hawkes, Gareth Cornhill, Luke Wheatley, Ollie Gray (Mark Lovell 88), Liam Quinn (c), Ben Laslett, Mitchell Sherwood, Joseph Afusi (Michael Yianni 46), Joe Taylor, Simon Pettit, Pascal Ebigbo. Unused Subs: James Gregory, Aaron Beech and Matt Lamprell.

On Tuesday the Rams travel to Merstham, who are one place below them in 10th.