27 Nov – Youth Round-Up

Two County Cup ties for the Kent Youth League teams today, which saw the Unders win away but the Under 15s falter at home. With no matches for the Under 14s and Under 13s today the only other game was an away League win for the Under 16s at Kennington. In the East Kent Youth League the Under 18s beat Betteshanger in the quarter final of the League Cup but the Under 16s, 14s, 13s and 12s all lost.

Kent Youth League

The Under 18s visited Bredhurst Juniors in the County Youth Cup and progress to the next round thanks to the only goal in a very tight contest, from Tom Chapman.

The Under 16s continued their good form with a clinical performance away from home against Kennington in the league. The Rams started strong and played some good possession football from the start, which frustrated Kennington and led to some over-zealous tackling, resulting in the Rams’ central defender Charlie Evans limping of after 5 minutes with a badly gashed shin. Jack Granger opened the scoring on the quarter hour with a superb drive from the edge of the area, and the ever impressive poacher Kane Rowland made it two when he stole the ball from a Kennington defender and poked it home past the stranded Kennington ‘keeper. Jarrett Francis hit a fantastic crossfield pass to find Mason Webb in the area to head home the Rams’ third and Jack Granger made use of Kennington’s lack of dominance in midfield to again drive home from distance, following some great passing through midfield from Ben Munday and Josh McAteer to go in four up at the break. The Rams continued their dominance during the 2^nd half including two more goals from Kane Rowland to complete his hat-trick and the Rams defence of Dan Barrett, Ben Davis, Jordon Box and Macauly Durling kept a clean sheet following some calm defending from the back. Man of the Match went to Jack Granger with what was one of his best performances this season, while Matt Bugg impressed down the right and was unlucky not to score when a superb header was spectacularly saved.

The Under 15s played their Sittingbourne counterparts for the 3^rd time in 4 weeks today at Southwood, and bowed out of the County Cup for this year. The stats read won 1, drew1, and lost 1 for the 3 games in quick succession, which for all but one have been close, tight games. Ramsgate began this game well and were soon on top and having lots of possession, and made this count by going 1-0 up following good work from Charlie Loveday down the right flank, who put in a pinpoint cross for his strike partner Callum Kennelly to finish from 6yds out. From this point the Rams had plenty of the ball but could not force another goal and were caught just before half time with a free kick into their box, which was headed powerfully towards goal, and although Charlie Hills in the Rams, goal got a great hand to it, it could not prevent the equaliser. The 2^nd half saw both sides going all out to win this tie and possession was quite even to both sides. The Rams could not find the breakthrough and tried to force the final pass on too many occasions. Midway through the half the visitors got the winner from a good finish from the right hand edge of the box. The immediate reaction came from Ramsgate and their last chance came through a Jake Munday header from a corner that narrowly flew wide, but they could not force extra time. This ends all cup participation for this year and leaves only league points up for grabs, and all focus is now on a tough fixture against champions Canterbury City this Sunday.

The Under 14s and Under 13s were both without a game today.

East Kent Youth League

The Under 18s were at home to Betteshanger in the League Cup, and went through to the semis after a 2-1 win. An own goal by the visitors kept the Rams level at halftime, but Josh Woods struck in the 2^nd half to seal the win.

The Under 16s were away today to Trinity in the Albert Baines Memorial Cup. On the back of an away win in the last fortnight and a fine draw against top of the table Margate last week, expectations were high and a decent result for the Rams may well have been on the cards. A 1^st half with conditions in their favour, Ramsgate were unable to find the net with a very lacklustre effort all-round. Trinity however managed to score 3, so against the wind and a Trinity team brimming with confidence at the interval, the omens were not good. Ramsgate however started to get their game together in the 2^nd half and clawed one back through a well taken header from a corner, with Jordan Goodwin finding the net. Whilst the match remained end-to-end, the Rams continued to press and Trinity conceded a very contentious penalty which Jordan Goodwin converted – game on. Both teams had chances in the next quarter of an hour with ‘keeper Kirkby making a good save with his feet from an advancing Trinity forward one-on-one with around twenty to go. Ramsgate pressed well against the strong wind in the remainder of the game but the game was effectively over when Trinity were awarded a penalty of their own after a great challenge by skipper Bradley Attwood to put the ball into touch was ruled by the man in the middle to be a foul (see Rio Ferdinand’s tackle in the Man Utd game yesterday!). Duly converted to put Trinity 4-2 up, it became obvious to all that though a gallant 2^nd half effort from the Rams put them back in the game for a while, the clock was ticking and Ramsgate u16s had not done enough in the 1^st period to be in with a real shout in the end. Some very strange decisions by the official in charge saw both managers frustrated on several occasions and didn’t contribute to what was otherwise a match played between strong rivals in the true spirit of the game.

The Under 14s went to Deal Town but returned without any points after a close battle that ended up 4-3 to the home side. Billy Ingram scored twice for the Rams and Ross Griffin netted once. Men of the Match went to Ray Greensmith and Connor Sinclair.

The Under 13s travelled to Kennington but, after last week’s impressive cup win at Ashford, today’s league encounter resulted in no points. The young Rams trailed 3-0 at half-time and although the home side doubled their tally in the 2^nd period the Rams did get a consolation goal through Tom Perriam, with Sam Morley picking up Player of the Match.

The Under 12s were away to Hawkinge Youth and returned without any points after losing 2-1, the young Rams goal coming from Josh Richards.