Corinthian-Casuals 3-1 Ramsgate - We were second best, admits Ramsgate boss Tim Dixon

Tuesday 18th February 2014

CORINTHIAN-CASUALS 3-1 RAMSGATE
Ryman League Division One South
Tuesday 18^th February 2014
Stephen McCartney reports from St Georges Field

RAMSGATE manager Tim Dixon says his side have made it very hard for themselves to grab a play-off place after slipping up against struggling Corinthian-Casuals.

Corinthian-Casuals remain in the bottom two in the Ryman League Division One South table following their fourth league win in 26 games, which now leaves them seven points adrift of fourth-from-bottom side Whitstable Town.

Ramsgate slipped down one place to tenth with 44 points from 31 games and remain nine points adrift of fifth-placed side Folkestone Invicta following their thirteenth league defeat of the season.

The home side opened the scoring inside seven minutes through central midfielder Jack Wadmore, before David Pilcher’s first goal of the season brought the Rams back on level terms.

But diminutive striker Jamie Byatt, 31, capped off an impressive display with two second half goals, which took his goalscoring tally up to fifteen for the season to give Kim Harris’ side hope of beating the drop at the end of the season.

“Well firstly if you don’t take your chances you don’t win football matches and we had plenty of chances today,” said Dixon, who was serving the last of his two-match touchline ban.

“I think on another day Puly (Ian Pulman) would’ve got a hat-trick but on the flip side of the coin if you defend as poorly as we did tonight, especially the second and third goal, I thought it was shocking defending and you’re going to get punished.

“It doesn’t matter if they’re bottom-of-the-league or top-of-the-league, you’re going to get punished if you defend like that so I’m very disappointed defensively.

“I think we’re stronger than that. We looked second best to most things tonight.”

Ramsgate went close to opening the scoring after only 17 seconds when Tom Chapman’s right-footed drive sailed narrowly over the crossbar from 30-yards after strikers Ian Pulman and James Everitt pressed.

But Ramsgate were guilty of poor defending as they gave the Tolworth-based hosts the start they needed to kick-start their survival hopes.

Man-of-the-Match Byatt cut in from the right before sweeping the ball out wide to Dave Hodges, who whipped in a cross into the penalty area, which was cleared away by Curtis Robinson.

However, the left-back could only find Wadmore, who took a touch before stroking his right-footed shot past the stranded Nick Shaw to find the bottom right-hand corner from 20-yards.

“Poor start,” said Dixon.

“I don’t think we closed down the shot quick enough, also a question whether Nick Shaw should have got the ball as it passed right in front of him so the benefit of the doubt there.

“But we responded well and got back into the game and that’s when I thought we should got a couple more.”

Robinson was guilty of giving the ball away for a second time, but Tommy Williams right-footed shot took a deflection and Shaw picked up the loose ball.

Byatt cut in from the left to drill a left-footed shot which sailed over Shaw’s crossbar, before Tommy Williams played the ball out to left-back Jordan Vidal, who burst forward before flashing his left-footed angled drive across Shaw and past the far post from 30-yards.

Steve Goddard clipped a ball forward, where a sliced clearance from Ramsgate defender Ben Laslett gave Wadmore a second opportunity but his left-footed curler sailed narrowly over the crossbar.

But Ramsgate clawed themselves back into the game by scoring in the 21^st minute.

Everitt swept the ball out to Pulman, who burst forward before he cut the ball back to Chapman, who played the ball inside to Everitt.

The Folkestone-based striker scuffed his shot towards goal, which was blocked and Pulman laid the ball off for Pilcher to steer his left-footed shot into the bottom near corner from ten-yards.

Dixon said: “He gets around the box really well, David. He gets into some good positions. There he was to tap the ball into the net. That’s when I thought we could go on from there but unfortunately we didn’t get that second one.”

Ramsgate were lifted by that goal and were on top for the remainder of the first half.

Midfielder James Sherman stung the fingers of Casuals’ goalkeeper Danny Bracken with a right-footed drive from 30-yards on the half-an-hour mark.

Macauley Murray swept his right-footed free-kick from 25-yards high over Bracken’s goal, before Sherman released Pulman through on goal but his left-footed chip from the edge of the box dropped agonisingly over the crossbar.

Dixon felt Pulman missed too many chances tonight and should have added to his sixteen goal haul.

“On another day, he would’ve got three or four goals, but we’ve got to take chances when we have a good spell in the game,” said the Rams boss.

“We’ve got to stay on top and take the chances and get the goals on the board but it wasn’t to be and we got punished for sloppy defending in the end.”

Corinthian-Casuals also squandered an excellent chance, ten minutes before half-time.

Pico Gomez was released down the left on the counter attack and he cut the ball back to the unmarked Byatt, who skied his first time left-footed shot over the crossbar from 12-yards.

Dixon added: “Another good chance, a very quick counter attack from them and he hit it over the bar.

“They had another couple of chances, there wasn’t just one or two incidents. They created a couple of chances.

“On balance, over the whole of the game, I think we created a little bit more but didn’t have the vital stat and that was the goals.”

Ramsgate were to be denied an equaliser when Pulman unleashed a right-footed drive from 30-yards, which was tipped around the post by the diving Bracken and from Murray’s resulting corner from the right central defender Ollie Schulz rose at the near post to plant his header over the bar.

Byatt tried his luck from a tight angle but steered his right-footed shot across goal and the ball flashed past the far post and behind for a goal-kick to Ramsgate.

Dixon was frustrated with his touch-line ban, which prevented him going into the dressing room during the half-time interval.

“This is my second one, my bans over now so I can get on with it,” said Dixon, who was also fined £100.

“It was bad being in the stands. I didn’t know what to do with myself at half-time. I was all over the place! I wanted to get in there and say a few words but I couldn’t but I’ve served my time. I’m now back on the bench so we’ll see how we go on Saturday.”

Ramsgate missed a chance to grab the lead inside the opening four minutes when Pulman latched onto a long ball over the top and pounced on a mistake from central defender Joe Hicks, but his shot was blocked.

Hodges released the energetic Byatt down the left flank, who reached the by-line before whipping in a brilliant cross towards the far post where Goddard’s downward header brought the very best out of Shaw, who dived to his right to tip the ball around the post for a corner.

But Corinthian-Casuals were gifted the lead in the 58^th minute when the Surrey side went route one.

Bracken launched a big kick which sailed over Ramsgate’s two central defenders and bounced over Shaw’s head and Byatt nipped in and poked the ball into the empty net to deny his goalkeeper a goal.

Dixon said: “It’s bounced over his head! To me we’ve got to win the first header. The goalkeeper’s kicked it a hell of a long way, but it’s bounced, Ollie or Ben have got to get their heads on that and clear it, rather than let it bounce. It’s a comedy of errors. It’s bounced over Nick Shaw’s head and the lad has a tap in. Very, very poor goal to concede and it gave them a bit of impetus at that time.”

Dixon was fuming again with the manner that Corinthian-Casuals sealed the victory in the 65^th minute.

Tommy Williams whipped in an excellent free-kick from the right by-line and Byatt jumped to plant his downward header into the bottom left-hand corner from three-yards out.

“I think sometimes people switch off and that’s exactly what we did,” admitted Dixon.

“You don’t expect the little fella to go and get the goal but you’ve got to mark everyone. It doesn’t matter whose marking him. I don’t know who it was. We’ll have an inquest into that because it was such a poor goal to concede and 3-1 gave them a little bit of a cushion really and we were chasing the game after that and it wasn’t to be.”

Speaking about man-of-the-match Byatt, Dixon added: “We didn’t get to grips with Jamie Byatt. He’s won a header for the third goal. He’s the smallest player on the pitch and we didn’t get the challenge in. He is a dangerous little fella and we didn’t’ get to grips with him and that’s disappointing.”

Ramsgate failed to accept a lifeline halfway through the second half when Murray pumped a free-kick into the penalty area and Robinson’s free-header went straight at Bracken.

Tommy Williams whipped in another corner from the right and the Ramsgate defence failed to pick up Byatt again, who sent his free header straight at Shaw from eight-yards.

Ramsgate finished the game with two late chances when Murray played the ball out to right-back Chris Rigden, who whipped in a cross towards the near post which was headed over by Chapman from eight-yards.

And with the last kick of the game substitute Nick Treadwell planted his header narrowly wide of the left-hand post after Murray’s corner from the right found the midfielder at the far post.

Dixon added: “We had a couple of chances but we probably didn’t deserve it. It was a lot of huffing and puffing, no killer instinct. You’ve got to score goals and put games to bed and we didn’t do it.

“I thought Corinthian-Casuals were good when we played them at home. I say good, they’re bottom of the league for a reason but they try to do the right thing, they play to their strengths and we were second best tonight, hence the 3-1 scoreline.

“But go back to the chances we’ve missed, you’ve got to put them away really, otherwise you’re going to put too much pressure on the defence.”

Dixon insisted his players didn’t adopt the “we only have to turn up” attitude against their struggling hosts.

“We try to not have that attitude when we’re playing,” he said.

“I said to them before the game you treat them with as much respect as if they were at the top of the table because they’re fighting for their lives at the bottom of the table so sometimes it makes it every harder so I don’t buy into that.

“Whatever happens mentally and physiologically in players, you can only try to gee them up and get them ready for the game. Hopefully we’ve done that but the result chose that we’re missing something tonight we now we have to work out what that was and break it down into little bits and see if we can get better.”

When asked about grabbing a play-off place at the end of the season, Dixon replied: “It’s always mathematically possible. Until it’s not you have to think like that but we’re certainly making it very hard for ourselves and there is a chasing pack. We haven’t done ourselves any favours tonight. We’ve made it very difficult to stay in that pack.”

Dixon, meanwhile, praised the groundstaff at Corinthian-Casuals for producing yet another fine playing surface.

“Getting a game of football on at this time of the season, after all we’ve been through, you look at the pitch, it’s a fantastic condition. Credit to the groundstaff that worked on it. You wouldn’t play on a better surface than this anytime during the season so credit to Corinthian-Casuals where that’s concerned.”

“That sort of plays into our hands because we like to play football, but we struggled to string passes together tonight. We didn’t have that killer touch, that killer instinct. That’s been the story of our season really. There’s certain times in games where you’ve got to take chances and get away from the other side and we didn’t do it tonight.”

Corinthian-Casuals: Danny Bracken, Tom Williams, Jordan Vidal (James Richmond 81), Danny Dudley, Joe Hicks, Jack Wadmore, Tommy Williams, Pico Gomez (Daniel Llacer 87), Jamie Byatt, Steve Goddard (Juevan Spencer 81), Dave Hodges.
Subs: Ellis Wilson-Joseph, Joe Davies

Goals: Jack Wadmore 7, Jamie Byatt 58, 65

Booked: Danny Dudley 31, Jamie Byatt 73, Pico Gomez 78

Ramsgate: Nick Shaw, Chris Rigden, Curtis Robinson, Macauley Murray, Ollie Schulz, Ben Laslett, David Pilcher (Kane Rowland 70), James Sherman (Nick Treadwell 85), Ian Pulman, James Everitt (Toby Smith 85), Tom Chapman.
Subs: Dan Barrett, Shannon Harris

Goal: David Pilcher 21

Attendance: 86
Referee: Mr Paul Johnson (Walton-on-Thames, Surrey)
Assistants: Mr Gareth Mays (Epsom, Surrey) & Mr Philip Jones (Epsom, Surrey)