8 January – Youth Round-Up

With the re-start of youth matches for 2012, the KYL Under 18s knocked Sevenoaks Town out of the KCFA Youth Cup at Southwood, and were followed by the KYL Under 14s knocking Phoenix Sports out of their KCFA Youth Cup at 2pm. The KYL Under 13s were also at home, losing a tough match against League leaders Maidstone Utd. The other KYL teams were away, with the Under 16s winning at Dover this morning and the Under 15s beating Ashford Utd in the afternoon, so it was 4 wins out of 5 games.

Home action for the EKYL teams saw the Under 18s beat Deal Town at St Lukes while the Under 13s were beaten by Trinity at Clarendon Sports Fields. The EKYL Under 16s lost at Trinity and the Under 14s drew at Kennington. The Under 12s had an extra week off.

Kent Youth League

The Under 18s move into the next round of the County Youth Cup after beating Sevenoaks Town 4-1, thanks to a Tom Chapman hat-trick and a goal from Jake Regan.

The Under 16s reinforced their position at the top of the League with a 4-1 win at 2^nd place Dover. The Rams started strongly and dominated the game from the start with early pressure paying off in the 3^rd minute when Charlie Evans’ long throw unto the box took the slightest of deflections off a Dover defender to put the Rams in front. Ramsgate continued to pressure the home team and only the Dover ‘keeper pulling off two fantastic saves stopped them from conceding further. Kane Rowland extended the lead midway through the 1^st half with a header, making it 2-0 to the Rams at the break. Dover came out fighting for the 2^nd half and scored with a header from a freekick but once again Rowland popped up beating the Dover ‘keeper with another well placed header. Ramsgate again dominated the game and sealed the victory with a Dominic Crawford goal following a fantastic weighted pass from Ben Munday. Man of the Match went to Jordon Box at left back.

The Under 15s completed a well earned double over a resilient Ashford side after the Xmas break. On a small and difficult ‘bobbly’ pitch in Ashford it was the Rams who started very brightly up the slope and pinned the home side in their half for long periods. As always, if you do not put your chances away you can be open to a breakaway goal and that is exactly what happened in this game, albeit a good free kick strike, to put a surprised Ashford side 1 up. The response from the Rams was immediate and after good work on the left flank by Ryan Coleman and Charlie Loveday set up Owen Kermode for the equaliser, and his 1^st goal on his debut. The Rams had the advantage of the slope in the 2^nd half and made the very most of it by keeping the ball in the Ashford half for long periods, with the Rams’ 2^nd coming early courtesy of an own goal off a great corner delivery by Adam Turton. This pattern continued throughout the half and with about 25 mins to go a clumsy challenge on Matt Dolan resulted in a penalty, which was duly converted by Adam Turton for Ramsgate’s 3^rd. Lloyd Leppard wrapped up the points with a fine low drive which gave the home ‘keeper no chance and that was how it ended, 4-1. A fine 1st result of 2012 and a good performance on a poor pitch.

The Under 14s were at home to Phoenix Sports in the County Cup and progressed to the quarter finals with a single goal victory.

The Under 13s were at home to Maidstone United, but lost 4-0 to the League-leaders at the Ellington & Hereson School.

East Kent Youth League

The Under 18s continued their winning ways when they played Deal Town, and with goals from Jack Paine, Dylan Harris and James Olver saw them win 3-1 and take all the points.

The Under 16s visited Trinity and, having been level for much of the game thanks to a goal from Steve Hazon, succumbed to a late strike to lose 2-1 and ended up with no points.

The Under 14s went to Kennington and, having trailed 2-1 at the break, pulled the game back to 3-3 by the final whistle. The Rams’ goals came from Billy Ingram, Conner Sinclair and Kane Webb, with Joe Twyman and Connor McAteer picking up joint Men of the Match.

The Under 13s welcomed Trinity to Clarendon Sports Fields and, having trailed 4-0 with a makeshift 11 at the interval, a rally after the break made a much more even 2^nd half and they only conceded once more. Player of the Match went to Lewis Hewitt.

The Under 12s were without a game today.