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Thursday 01st September 2005

Late, late drama in five goal thriller

Tuesday 23rd August 2005	Ryman League Division One	Aaron Ayres reports from Southwood Stadium
Ramsgate	3	S Vahid 1 O. Schulz 35 Ball 90
Tooting & Mitcham Utd	2	Munday 20 Hart 90

A 97th minute goal from Steffan Ball, made sure Ramsgate continued their great unbeaten start to the season in a thrilling match at Southwood on Tuesday night, writes Aaron Ayres.

The Rams got off to a great start when their first attack of the match resulted in a headed goal from Stuart Vahid in the 1st minute.

Stuart really should added to his goal tally on 10 minutes, when he was one on one with the goalkeeper but put it wide.

A minute later Shaun Welford broke free of the defence, but his shot was well saved by Naughton.

Tooting then got a break and Mikael Munday slammed in Jason Pinnock's cross for the 20th minute equalizer, but Ramsgate were back in front 15 minutes later when centre-back Ollie Schulz outjumped Naughton from another free-kick.

Ramsgate had a number of chances to add to the scoreline with a Warren Schulz diving header that went wide, and Welford failing to connect to a great cross.

But the first half drama did not end there, in the 45th minute a Tooting & Mitcham shot appeared to be going in - but Stuart Vahid cleared it off the line with an overhead kick, which was met by Michael Yianni who then broke down the middle, switching to Steffan Ball on the right wing whose volley went just wide of the visitor's goal.

Tooting started the 2nd half brighter and, after only a minute, they had a corner that was met by Tooting head that went just over the bar.

Suter came on to replace Stuart Vahid on 70 minutes, and straight away picked up a silly caution when he did a late barge into the keeper, who had a tough time most of the night.

Only a couple of minutes later a fresh Suter ran down the left wing and found Ball with a great cross, who had a great shot stopped by the legs of Tooting No 3 Craig Tanner - saving a certain goal without knowing much about it.

The resulting corner found Ball again whose shot was cleared off the line again by the impressive Tanner.

Tooting attacked searching for an equailser, but Twyman held them out.

Warren Schulz intercepted a poor clearance by Tooting on the halfway line and put Ball through with a wonder pass. Ball the beat Tanner and the goalkeeper but his angled shot was cleared off the line thanks to the pace of the Tooting defence.

Tooting never gave up and got a hard fought for 94th minute equaliser, when Tanner's cross was met by Ted Hart, the jubilant visiting fans thinking a point had been saved.

However, the Rams' 'never say never' attitude saw Ball smash home a winner from a free kick minutes later!

A jubilant Jim Ward spoke after the match. "That was a great game and what drama at the end. We were fantastic tonight and we had 11 shots on target to their 3 and our game plan pulled off."

Ramsgate: Twyman, E Vahid , Cassar (L Morris), Hill, O Schulz, Laslett, Yianni ,W Schulz (Captain), Welford (Munday ), Ball , S Vahid (S Suter ) Subs: Cory, Pettit

Tooting & Mitcham United: Naughton, Lasbrey, Tanner, Hart, Day, Bowen, Findlay, Kinch, Hastings, Pinnock, Munday. Subs: Francis, Muscat, Grant, Dennis, Howard.

Attendance: 244
Referee Andy Legg
Assistants: Mark Sage and Richard Joss