Ball departure marks end of an era, admits Ward

Five of them, Lawrence Ball, Ollie Schulz, Shaun Welford, Dean Hill and midfielder Jones, all went on to comfortably clinch the Ryman Premier League title for Dover Athletic, whilst goalkeeper Paul Wilkerson retired and right-back Ashley Burton left to study at Portsmouth University.

Ward, speaking to www.kentishfootball.co.uk this lunchtime, is delighted that former Sunday League player Jones has opted to return to Southwood Stadium after a season playing for Andy Hessenthaler at Crabble.

“I’ve signed the boy Jones, Sam Jones, who I think will be one of the top players in the division next year,” said Ward.

“He came to us late in the (2007-2008) season, I picked him up from Sunday morning football and to be fair he played for us and then he caught the eye of (Dover Athletic assistant manager) Darren Hare when he was watching the other players that they nicked off us.

“He was at college at Kingstonian and Dover were training a bit closer to home and to be fair they are a big club Dover.

“He went to Dover and he found it difficult to get in (their team), but we welcome him back with open arms.

“I never begrudge him the opportunity to go there.  I never fell out of him obviously, because he’s come back and signed for me.

“He’s a good player, he knows how to beat a man and he knows how to score a goal.”

With defensive rock Nick Davis already signed a one-year contract for Tonbridge Angels, striker Steffan Ball is expected to sign for another Ryman Premier League side, Tooting & Mitcham United, according to the Rams boss.

“Well, with Steffan going and Nick Davis, it’s an end of an era,” said Ward.

“They were big players at the time for us but you’ve got to move on.  We’ve only got one London lad now and that’s Aaron Firth – we’ve concentrated on closer to home.”

Ramsgate report back to pre-season training on Tuesday, 30^th June, and Ward is looking forward to running his eyes over his trialists.

But he insists the team-spirit, that went missing last season, has returned in abundance.

“We’ve got all sort of lads coming along, we’ve invited some people down to keep them quiet for a minute,” said Ward.

“I need a left back and a centre half still. Maybe the ones who are at the club will do that job for me anyway, but I’m in the market for a left-back and a centre half.

But Ward insists his squad are gunning to bounce back at the first attempt.

“The boys are all raring to go,” he said.  “The players are on the phone all the time, telling me that they think we’ve got a squad that’s capable of doing very well in the division.

“I’m delighted all my experienced midfield players are staying on like (Warren) Schulz, (Simon) Pettit, (Andy) Hadden) and (Ben) Laslett.”

Reflecting on what went wrong last season, Ward said, “We had too many changes last year, too many of the big names went.

“I’ve got some great players at the club, we’ve got to get it right, off the pitch especially and we’ve got to get the training right."

The Scotsman added: “I never stop learning, I’ve been a manager for 20-odd years, I’m learning every week.”

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