Folkestone Invicta 2-3 Ramsgate - Danny Twyman was the hero today, says Ramsgate boss Jim Ward

FOLKESTONE INVICTA  2-3  RAMSGATE
Ryman League Division One South
Saturday 25^th February 2012
Stephen McCartney reports from Cheriton Road

RAMSGATE boss Jim Ward praised his young goalscorers after they sealed the double over their play-off chasing east Kent neighbours Folkestone Invicta to keep their slim play-off hopes alive.

The Rams, who won by the same scoreline at Southwood Stadium back in November, extended their unbeaten run to six games after goals from Bradley Dack, Joe Taylor and substitute Tom Chapman inflicted Folkestone Invicta’s second successive home defeat.

Ramsgate climbed up to seventh-place in the Ryman League Division One South table, with 45 points, with eleven games left to play, while Folkestone Invicta remain in sixth-place, nine points clear of Ward’s side.

Despite his two strikers, James Everitt and Stuart King, getting on the scoresheet, a disappointed Neil Cugley has told his Folkestone Invicta players to report for extra training on Monday night, ahead of their home friendly match against Kent League side Canterbury City on Wednesday.

This league game lasted 108 minutes and 55 seconds due to injuries sustained to Ramsgate keeper Danny Twyman and referee Mr Oliver Jackson during a hard-fought east Kent derby.

Ward was a happy figure at the final whistle - and will certainly enjoy his meal with his wife in Brighton tonight.

“The fans were all signing it weren’t they?  We only win 3-2!” said the Scot.  “We’ve had a few of them this year.  I could do without it!

“Funny game it was.  The first twenty minutes we completely dominated.  Next 25 they completely dominated.

“We scored in the first minute of the second half and second half was ebb and flow.  They had chances.  We had chances.  Danny Twyman was the hero today, I suppose.  He made some great saves as did Jack Delo, but Danny certainly made more than Jack.

“At the end of the day we’ve got three points, which I’m delighted with!”

Folkestone Invicta boss Neil Cugley, meanwhile, held his hand up and admitted he got it wrong.

He said: “I take the blame really, I’ve chased the game.  We really need to win our home games and I’ve opened it right up and to be fair their keeper has made two or three great saves when it was two-all and kept them in it and they caught us on the break.

“I thought we defended poorly all day really.  I thought Liam Friend had one of those days he’d like to forget.  We didn’t deal with their forwards at all well but generally I’m disappointed because we’re not keeping the ball moving better when I think we was in December when we was playing some great stuff, keeping the ball moving and at the moment I don’t think we’re doing that.”

Ramsgate, who also completed a double over Burgess Hill Town last week, created the game’s first chance, when Taylor’s low right-footed drive from 30-yards, a speculative effort, rolled harmlessly wide.

Folkestone Invicta’s first chance fell to eighteen-goal striker King, but the former Ramsgate striker met Josh Burchell’s precise cross from the left flank with a diving header from six-yards, which flew over the crossbar.

But that miss proved costly, as Ramsgate went up the other end and drew first blood, taking a sixteenth minute lead to the delight of their smaller than normal travelling contingent.

Right-back Gareth Cornhill played the ball through the heart of the flat-footed Folkestone back-line to release Dack through on goal and the Gillingham youngster kept his composure and slotted a low right-footed shot past Delo into the bottom right-hand corner.

“Good finish, but the boy’s been doing it all year,” said Ward.  “He’s scored 23 goals for Gillingham’s under 18’s and reserves so I had no doubt when he went through, he was going to score.

“And two seventeen-year-old boys scored my goals today.  Tom Chapman got the winner and he’s only seventeen and Bradley Dack for the first one and Joe Taylor is only twenty, so it’s not bad!”

Cugley, meanwhile, pointed the finger of blame to Friend.

He said: “Poor defending!  You can’t play offside on the halfway line!  Liam’s in change of that and you have to give yourselves some depth, especially early on in the game when people’s fit, got energy and they’ll run from there.   It was a very poor goal to give away!”

There was concern for visiting keeper Twyman, who needed lengthy treatment after Liam Dickson clattered into him after the 31-year-old caught Burchell’s curling free-kick towards the far post.

Ramsgate almost punished a sleepy Folkestone defence just sixteen seconds after the re-start when Michael Yianni floated in a free-kick into the penalty area and an unmarked Simon Pettit headed wide of the post from eight-yards.

Twyman, however, soldiered on and went on to make some vital saves to thwart Folkestone.

Folkestone should have equalised when King and James Everitt played a neat one-two and an under pressure King stabbed his shot towards goal, but Twyman came quickly out quickly and bravely blocked the shot.

But Folkestone Invicta did restore parity with 43:17 on the clock, thanks to James Everitt’s 21^st goal of the season.

They forced a throw by the corner flag and Josh Vincent launched a long throw into the penalty area and Ramsgate fail to deal with the ball and the Folkestone striker turned and steered a right-footed shot into the bottom near corner from six-yards.

Cugley said: “I could see us scoring.   We deserved that!  We were back in the game and I thought we’d kick on and win the game to be fair at half-time.

“I thought we were playing the better football and we’d win the game.”

A few years’ back that was the kind of goal that Ramsgate relied upon as they rose from the Kent League straight up into the Ryman Premier League play-off semi-final.

Ward said: “Shocking defending! Shocking, shocking defending! 

“Simon Pettit was walking in quick sand. It should’ve been cleared before it got to Simon.  He was stuck with his heels on the deck and the guy Everitt has tucked it away.

“You know Folkestone are going to score.  They’ve got (James) Everitt and they’ve got Kingy, two really, really good players, really good strikers.”

Twyman was kept busy inside an extended injury time when he made a brave save at King’s feet after Friend clipped the ball over the top of the Ramsgate defence and then Friend cracked a low left-footed drive, which forced Twyman into making a fine block, the ball diverting off his body and flashing flashing just past the far post.

The first half ended with 53:15 on the clock and the second half kicked off at 4:09pm and Rams boss Ward revealed he gave his side an ear-bashing during the interval.

He said: “None of it is repeatable because at half-time they were called everything, because the game was finished.  There was only one winner and that was Folkestone.  We were all over the place!

“We were out because the end of the first half was diabolical. To come in one-each we changed the formation – as they did.  We went 4-5-1 rather than 3-5-2 and the second half was even but we got the goals.”

And Ward’s strong words clearly had the desired effect as the Thanet outfit snatched the lead for the second time after only 44 seconds into the second half.

Folkestone kicked off and lost possession and Michael Yianni escaped down the left channel and he slipped the ball to Taylor, who stabbed the ball towards goal, which deflected off Friend and trickled past Delo and trickled over the line despite Frankie Chappell’s attempt to clear the ball off the line.

Ward was pleased that the tables had turned, saying, “Well, that’s happened to us a lot this year, teams scoring against us in that period so we’re delighted to get that. It made a change!  A great goal!”

Cugley, though wasn’t so pleased.

He said: “Liam’s got to do better, again.  I thought he’d scored the own goal.  Did he?  Was it an own goal or did they give it to someone?  I don’t know.

“It was one kick down the middle and we didn’t’ deal with it.  It was terrible defending!”

Ramsgate’s leading goalscorer, Ian Pulman, was twice thwarted by two fine saves from Folkestone keeper Delo.

Pulman was left unmarked inside the Folkestone penalty area and his angled drive brought a smart low save by Delo at his near post.

The striker was then released down the right channel and after cutting in, he cracked a right-footed drive, which was destined to nestle into the far corner, but the highly-rated former Herne Bay stopper stuck out a strong right arm to block.

Ward added: “Great chances, yes.  Delo made some great saves.  Pully was again sharp in the whole game.  I suppose he had four or five chances.”

That was a crucial moment in the game as Folkestone went up the other end and equalised in the 52^nd minute.

And King’s brilliant piece of skill had the Folkestone supporters behind the goal claiming the striker was Brazilian – it was such an excellent solo finish!

King danced his way past three defenders inside the Ramsgate box, turned Liam Quinn and from an acute angle rifled a left-footed shot across Twyman and into the roof of the net.

Cugley believes King can progress towards a higher level of football if he stamps out his bad points of his game.

He said: “It was end-to-end to be fair and then we got a great goal but again I felt he could do a lot more for us.  He’s obviously a class player but he’s got to learn when to keep possession and when to lay the ball off but the actual goal….

“If he can learn to do the other things to his game he could play at the very highest standard.  It was a tremendous goal and then really at two-all I felt we was going to win the game and I put all of our attacking options on and to be fair to the lad Twyman he’s made two or three great saves really and he’s kept them in it!”

Ward added: “That’s what he does (if you) give him room!  He got away with it. It was half a tackle down the left hand side.  We had three bites of the cherry to get rid of it first of all and then he rolled Quinny and smashed one.”

As the crowd of 327 marvelled at that goal, the game turned into a midfield battle until halfway through the half when James Everitt shrugged past Ollie Gray and slipped the ball through to substitute Antonio Gonnella, who took a couple of touches and unleashed a right-footed curler, which was looping towards the top far corner, but Twyman caught the ball high above his head.

Folkestone stepped up a gear and King turned on the edge of the box but his left-footed shot lacked power and rolled into Twyman’s gloves.

Darren Marsden then got in behind the Ramsgate defence and cut the ball across the goal but King was denied by Twyman, who bravely smothered the ball at the striker’s feet.

King then cracked a left-footed free-kick from 35-yards, which took a deflection and Twyman helped the ball behind with his left arm.

But the referee went down with an injured left calf with four minutes of the game remaining and play was held up for four minutes whilst he received treatment and was helped off the pitch and the Sittingbourne based referee was replaced by senior assistant Frank Meliak, with Folkestone assistant manager Micky Dix taking over flag duties.

Folkestone, however, went for the kill.  A cross from Burchell found substitute Simon Austin lurking at the far post and his driven shot was palmed over by Twyman and Gonella’s resulting corner from the right was met at the far post by James Everitt’s header, which was comfortably saved low down by man-of-the-match Twyman.

But Ramsgate snatched victory with 51:14 on the clock when Gray released fellow substitute Chapman through on goal and after cutting inside he curled an excellent left-footed shot from 18-yards across the diving Delo and the ball nestled into the far corner to the delight of the Ramsgate fans.

Ward was pleased that Chapman has got off the mark.

He said: “We knew there was that long to play.  I won’t leave the boy alone because he hasn’t scored a goal yet, a proper goal.  He’s scored in friendlies and stuff.  He’s a talent and I keep saying if the keeper makes a great save it’s always against him.  Well, he beat a very good keeper with his wrong foot, with his left foot.  A great finish!”

Cugley added: “We knew there was loads of injury time anyway. I tried to chase the game because we need to win games and they caught us on the break but I still think we should’ve defended that a lot earlier and we’ve left him just cut in and he’s taken it ever so well.

“Then we’ve had a couple of half chances but we have to start playing a lot better, like we did in December.   We set really high standards and we haven’t got anywhere near them since.  We have to try to sort it out otherwise we’ll drift away and we won’t be good enough to get into the play-offs.

“And to concede three goals, that’s seven goals we’ve conceded in the last two home games and that’s just not like us really, that’s disappointing.  I still think we can do better really.”

Gonnella almost claimed a point for Folkestone, but his 25-yard drive was pushed around the post by Twyman, but it was Ramsgate who went home with the points in the bag.

Ward has plenty of respect for his opposite number Cugley, whose Folkestone side are a lot more entertaining to watch than in recent years’.

He said: “Both teams are the same.  I said it to you before the game started, both teams, both clubs are the same sort of thing. 

“He’s (Cugley) a year in front of me, I think, as he’s had his players a year longer and he’s got more adventurous this year, which is great to see.”

In response, Cugley added: “We did say at the beginning of the season we’d be a little more entertaining.  We can’t just say we’d play five at the back and try to nick a one-nil.  I’d rather win 3-2!”

Folkestone Invicta: Jack Delo, Josh Vincent, Josh Burchell, Liam Friend, Frankie Chappell, Liam Dickson (Antonio Gonnella 58), Darren Smith, Darren Marsden (Simon Austin 82), James Everitt, Stuart King, Micheal Everitt.
Subs: Roland Edge, Cade Mortimer, Roddy Hayward

Goals:  James Everitt 44, Stuart King 52

Booked: Liam Dickson 29, Antonio Gonnella 90

Ramsgate: Danny Twyman, Gareth Cornhill (Ollie Gray 58), Jack Parter, Luke Wheatley, Liam Quinn, Ben Laslett, Michael Yianni (Tom Chapman 77), Joe Taylor, Ian Pulman, Simon Pettit, Bradley Dack (Pascal Ebigbo 77).
Subs: Dean Grant, Shannon Harris

Goals: Bradley Dack 16, Joe Taylor 46, Tom Chapman 90

Booked: Luke Wheatley 26, Bradley Dack 38

Attendance: 327
Referee: Mr Oliver Jackson (Sittingbourne)
Assistants: Mr Frank Meliak (Crowborough, East Sussex) & Mr Theo Parfitt (Heathfield, East Sussex)