Ramsgate 0 Ashford Town 0
from Your Milton Keynes Correspondent
Easter Monday, 2010, and this was the second leg of a double-header for us, as we were at The Homelands for Saturday’s 0-1 defeat at home to in-form Leatherhead. The Easter week-end gives us the opportunity to spend a few days in God’s own town, and to take in a couple of games – thanks to the wonderful hospitality of the Orsbournes ! Culinary highlights of the week-end were, of course, the cooked breakfast, but also an excellent meal at The Halfway House, in Challock, on the Sunday. I’d recommend the smoked haddock rarebit to anybody !
To summarise the outcome of the footy over the three days, Ashford Town’s haul was a solitary point – but a point that was valuable, in that, with results elsewhere mostly going our way, we emerge from Easter with a cushion of three points between us and Walton Casuals and Eastbourne Town, and with four games in hand of both of those rivals. Furthermore, looking at a slightly wider picture, the outcome was that we managed to play two of nine games that remained to be played, at the start of the week-end. Given that there was a significant portion of the pitch that was under water last Wednesday, that comes as quite a relief, with fears having begun to grow as to whether we would be able to actually fulfil our fixtures for the season. The weather has certainly relented just in time for the week-end. Whilst The Homelands pitch had several sandy patches on it, and the top was a bit loose, on Saturday, the surface seemed to play pretty well, and Steve Hackett had obviously done a tremendous job in getting the pitch into a playable condition.
The main problem, of late, has been the exceptionally wet winter that the ground has had to endure. East Kent actually had a February that was 283.7% wetter than average, and the March figure is not dissimilar. (Your Milton Keynes Correspondent took the trouble to visit the Environment Agency’s official weather station in Sellinge, in order to provide you with this authoritative and accurate piece of information – and all in the interest of maintaining the high standards of journalism set on this web-site). It was certainly a bright, sunny morning as we set off from Ashford on the (for us) short journey to Southwood Stadium, in Ramsgate, and the sunshine lasted throughout the day, rarely, if ever, disappearing behind the ever-present white clouds.
So lovely weather, good food, good company and accurate rain gauge measurements …………. and then one of the worst games of football that I have ever seen ! I won’t say that it was THE worst, as there have been many candidates for that mantle over the years of following Ashford Town around the South of England – but it was dreadful.
As ever, there were some valid excuses for the players not treating us to a rerun of Arsenal v Barcelona. One of these was the state of the Southwood pitch, which looked incredibly green, with an almost complete coverage of dark green grass – but it was clear from the opening seconds that the surface was bumpy, with the ball bobbling around in all areas. There was also a considerable breeze to contend with – and this was obvious throughout the match, as both sets of players did their best to keep the ball in the air as high, and for as long, as possible; (and to sometimes kick it as far away as possible, when they should have been shooting for goal !). The game was also refereed by Mr Lee Venamore, who is known to be one of the fussier referees on the circuit, so this further reduced the probability of a flowing football spectacle. Furthermore, the home team’s players could point out that, (although they’d never let Manager Jim Ward hear them think it), this was very much an end-of-season exercise for them. Being safely tucked away in mid-table, with only four games left after this one, Ramsgate had the luxury of treating this game as being like one of those slow dances that one used to have at the end of a disco – except that nobody actually got $%£&ed afterwards.
Given The Rams’ deep-down disinterest, the visitors had little problem with matching their opponents during the course of this dance – but had fewer excuses, as this was another vital game in the on-going struggle to avoid relegation to the Kent League. Having failed to register a shot on target throughout the match, (Ramsgate had three), Ashford only had the one shot off target, according to Rob Lane’s figures – which just about sums up the 90 minutes of entertainment. However, it would be unfair to say that these statistics sum up the Ashford performance, as that would ignore the fact that every man battled hard, in difficult playing conditions, and it will be important to quarry out precious points like this, if we are to have a Staying Up Party at the end of the season ! That would also tend to devalue some good individual performances out there this afternoon. One of the main reasons for Ashford keeping a clean sheet, (and therefore taking home a point, as we never looked likely to score), was yet another commanding performance by Lee Hockey at the centre of defence, both in the air and on the ground. I also thought that Mark Lovell played well. He looked strong, and in control, when having the ball at his feet, but never did so within shouting distance of the Ramsgate goal, so never threatened to get onto the score-sheet. I was also quietly impressed with young Ronnie Dolan – in both matches over the week-end, in fact. He’s really starting to find his feet in the first team, and is beginning to look a good player.
The Ashford side was bolstered in defence by the return of Carl Harrold and Laurence Harvey. I heard several vivid and colourful descriptions of their indisposition for Saturday’s game – but I’ll settle for saying that they were both absent due to a stomach upset. A notable absentee, however, was Ross Morley, who had work commitments. Joe Fuller was also on the injury list, having been taken off at half time in the Leatherhead match, with a leg problem, and it appears that Nick Smith will be out injured for the rest of the season.
On the plus side, however, there was an unexpected and welcome return for Liam Geering. The loanee from Gillingham, who arrived at the same time as Tom Murphy, has been suffering from glandular fever, and it had been anticipated that this debilitating illness would keep him out for the rest of the season, but he turned up at Southwood Stadium with a clean bill of health.
So Ashford lined up in 4-4-2 formation, with the ever-improving Scott-Chalmers Stevens in goal, Laurence Harvey at right-back, Carl Harrold at left-back and Lee Hockey and skipper Toby Ashmore in the centre; Chris Borchescu continued in the centre of midfield, this time alongside Ronnie Dolan, who had operated in a wide position against Leatherhead on Saturday; Mitchell Sherwood was wide on the right, with Liam Geering on the left; Tom Murphy (with his right knee bandaged) partnered Mark Lovell up front. The substitutes bench consisted of three lads who had featured in the Leatherhead game – Danny Shearing, Dan Scorer and Sam Conlon – as well as sub goalie Darren Ibrahim and Club Captain Danny Lye, who was never going to be considered fit enough to play.
One other absentee to mention was Manager Steve Lovell, who had to serve the first of a four-game touchline ban, meaning that he was left to chunter away in the stand – Assistant Manager Hugo Langton took charge of the team.
I did make copious notes on the game’s events, as usual, but will spare readers the ordeal of a list of corners, free-kicks and Lee Hockey long throws, as all of these situations came to nothing (!). Instead, I will, for once, settle for quoting Rob Lane’s corners statistic: it ended up 6-3 to Ramsgit !
The home side did look marginally more dangerous when going forward, in the early stages – mainly through Rhys Lawson. In the fifth minute, with the ball spread wide to him, on the right, Lawson rounded Carl Harrold on his outside, and got to the by-line, but his cross-cum-shot flew across the face of goal. In the 14th minute, the same player again beat Harrold, and managed to get a cross in from the by-line, but this time his cross was too strong, and eluded everybody.
The best chance of the entire game fell to Rams’ skipper Warren Schulz, in the 21st minute, and Schulz’s effort would have been worthy of all three points, if it had gone in. Finding himself under a high ball, just outside the Ashford penalty area, he hit a snap shot, on the volley, causing Scott Chalmers-Stevens to make a spectacular save, catching the ball as he dived, at full stretch, to his left. It was certainly one for the photographers, but a fine save, nonetheless. Scottie generally had a solid (albeit fairly quiet) game, apart from a few adventures with his kicking !
Laurence Harvey was also fairly solid this afternoon, in his slightly less familiar position of right-back, but did cause a flutter in the 24th minute, after being caught in possession in his own half. This immediately led to a swift attack from the home side, but Lee Hockey was there to save the day with a good tackle inside the penalty area.
Tom Murphy didn’t have a particularly effective week-end – things just didn’t seem to fall right for him, in either game – but he was responsible for Ashford’s most promising moments in the opposition’s half of the field. In the 25th minute, he dinked the ball past a defender, and ran on into the penalty area, only to slice his attempted cross – but these chances were few and far between, with Ashford not being helped by Mr Venamore’s apparent refusal to play any advantage to the visitors. In a fifteen-minute spell in the first half, the referee frustrated players and management alike, when on three occasions he blew up for a foul when there was clearly an advantage to be played. On each occasion, the resulting free-kick came to nothing. Venamore was also maybe a little harsh when he booked Ronnie Dolan for not retreating ten yards, after Warren Schulz had blasted the ball at him – he evened things up by showing a yellow card to Schulz, as well !
Ashford had a promising situation at the start of the second half, when good work on the ball by Mark Lovell drew a foul, and a free-kick, just a couple of yards outside the penalty area, in a central position. There were plenty of options for the visitors; would Chris Borchescu use his undoubted skill to bend the ball in with his left foot? Would Tom Murphy curl it in with his right? Would Toby Ashmore just hit it as hard, and as straight, as he could? In the end, Tom hit a firm shot which hit Ramsgate’s James Gregory, on the end of the wall, full in the face, knocking him over like a skittle – for the only really light moment of the game.
In the 53rd minute, Lee Hockey was again impressive, with two great saving tackles, in quick succession, in the penalty area. He also showed his aerial prowess to great effect when he beat Warren Schulz in the air, with a powerful header – but Mr Venamore took a different view of things, and actually booked Lee for leading with his arm. Schulz required treatment for the blow he received, and there was probably more than just an element of retribution in the challenge, in the 64th minute, when Lee received an elbow in the face after winning a header against big Joe Taylor, who had been on the field for three minutes, having previously replaced Gary Lockyer. In fairness to Mr V, he showed consistency when having no hesitation in booking Taylor.
Steve Lovell – I mean Hugo Langton – made just the one substitution, when he replaced Liam Geering with Dan Scorer, on the left wing, but Dan was unable to make an impact, and after the Bank Holiday crowd of 267 was forced to endure five minutes of added time, everyone shook hands on a 0-0 draw.
Man of the Match
(to go towards the Milton Keynes Bowl)
Lee Hockey
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