Ladies 14 Gravesham 0

Having beaten today’s opponents, bottom placed Gravesham Ladies, 12-0 earlier in the season goals were expected at Southwood this afternoon and, after a conservative first half tally, Ramsgate Ladies didn’t fail to deliver – emerging victorious by scoring 14 goals without reply. Coming off the back of three tough matches Ramsgate tore out of the blocks as usual with Tiffany Routledge hitting the crossbar in the 3^rd minute before firing the rebound wide of the ‘keeper and post. In fact it wasn’t long before Tiff again hit the woodwork when running into the left of the box her low shot passed the ‘keeper but unfortunately not the far upright. Playing with a high line defence Chelsea’s AVB would be proud of the reds dominated proceedings throughout, creating chance after chance. With Gravesham proving of little or no threat on goal, a combination of offside decisions, missed chances and inspired ‘keeping kept Ramsgate at bay for the first half hour until a ball over the top allowed Tiff to lob the oncoming ‘keeper from the edge of the box, thus break the deadlock. It wasn’t just Tiff who had chances with Kara Richardson rampaging down the left wing and Tammy Pile-Gray shooting from distance it seemed only a matter of time before the Ladies imposed their dominance and it was Jess Smith who made it 2-0 firing in from a crowded box. It wasn’t until the 39^th minute when the visitors made their first real threat on the home goal as a defensive slip gave their striker the ball but she fortunately shot straight into goalkeeper Megan Cavell’s safe gloves. With the last kick of the half Tammy rifled into the bottom corner of the goal to give Ramsgate a 3-0 half time lead.

The ladies entered the second period by immediately encamping the oppositions half and after just 2 minutes Jess added her second by skipping past the defence and firing home. Tammy then set up Tiff for the reds’ 5^th before Tiff beat the offside trap to make it a personal hat-trick and 6 in total. With the home side now beating the offside trap on a regular basis and some continued good teamwork and unselfish passing it was now just a matter of how big the scoreline would be. Tiff made it 7 and Tammy 8 before Megan – now playing in her favored right wing position, having been replaced in goal by Amy Robinson – scored the 9^th goal of the afternoon. Unsurprisingly it was Tiff who put the scoreline into double figures with another run through the defence before Sophie Turner scored her first of the season, which proved to be worth the wait. With centre-half Melanie Tsangarides (voted player of the match by the opposition) pushing forward more and more she ran almost the length of the pitch before setting up Sophie to curl the ball over and round the ‘keeper and into the far side of the goal with all the aplomb of the twenty plus scorers. With nearly twenty minutes still on the clock credit has to go to a battling Gravesham team who, despite the convincing scoreline never let their heads drop or stopped playing football for the entire match. Notwithstanding this gallant effort Tiff scored twice more – making her total seven for the afternoon – and Megan, who was unlucky not to complete her hat-trick, completed the scoring in this one sided affair. With a winter break impending Ramsgate finish off the year in style, hitting double figures for the sixth time this season and moving up to a well deserved second place league spot for the Christmas break.

Ramsgate: Megan Cavell, Janine Judd, Melanie Tsangarides, Jennifer Carracio, Vicky Collings, Amy Robinson (C), Jessica Smith, Tammy Pile-Gray, Tiffany Routledge, Sophie Turner, Kara Richardson (Rachel Coll 35).

Goals : Tiffany Routledge 30, 51, 53, 58, 69, 74, 85; Jessica Smith 33, 47; Tammy Pile-Gray 45+3, 64; Megan Cavell 65, 86; Sophie Turner 72.