Haywards Heath Town 1-0 Ramsgate - I think we've got to do better in the big games - we've got 33 points to play for and we're not in the play-offs yet, says Ramsgate boss Matt Longhurst

Haywards Heath Town 1 – 0 Ramsgate
Location	Hanbury Stadium, Allen Road, Haywards Heath, West Sussex RH16 3PT
Kickoff	15/02/2022 19:45

HAYWARDS HEATH TOWN  1-0  RAMSGATE
Isthmian League South East Division
Tuesday 15 February 2022
Stephen McCartney reports from Hanbury Stadium

RAMSGATE manager Matt Longhurst says his side must find consistency if they are to remain in the Isthmian League South East Division play-offs after losing to fellow promotion chasers Haywards Heath Town.

 

The Rams remain in third-place in the table with 50 points from their 27 league games but Martin Dynan’s side leapfrogged over Herne Bay into fifth-place with 49 points but with a game in hand.

Haywards Heath Town claimed the victory nine minutes into the second half courtesy of left-back Kieran Rowe, which settled a cagey encounter at Hanbury Stadium.

Ramsgate’s four best attempts on the night came from headers but Dynan collected his second win in three games since departing South Park to replace Shaun Saunders at the helm.

“I think first-half they were miles better than us.  I thought second half they started better than us and I think come the end of the 90 minutes we had enough chances to win the game and certainly get a point,” said Longhurst.

“We’ve missed three headers from three-yards, four-yards and a yard and ultimately that’s cost us a point coming away.

“Over the course of the game were we great? No. Will we had taken a point off the back of that performance? Yes.  Am I disappointed in us tonight? Yeah.

“I think they showed they had a bit more experience on the pitch than us. We’re doing great with the young players that we’ve got but games like tonight is where we’ve come unstuck a little bit.

“I thought they managed the situations quite well and I thought they dominated us a little bit physically in the first-half and it looked like two teams that didn’t particularly want to lose the game.

“I wasn’t overly pleased with what we did tonight, if I’m honest.”

Ramsgate left-winger Callum Peck was forced off with an ankle ligament injury inside the opening 10 minutes and combative holding midfielder Lee Prescott was withdrawn after 31 minutes having picked up a yellow card from referee  Daniel Simpson.

“Callum Peck’s out for a couple of weeks now unfortunately,” revealed Longhurst.

“Ashley Miller isn’t really fit, that’s why he’s on the bench at the minute.  We’ve lost Tom Bradbrook to injury, Bradley Ryan’s gone because he wasn’t getting any game time.  Danny Lear out on loan at Erith & Belvedere but injured so there was no point in bringing him back.

“We’ve got a couple of centre-forwards that we’re bringing in that we just couldn’t get them done in time for tonight so we knew that’s where we’re light.

“Obviously Callum going off then nullifies one of our threats in the front areas and then we’re bringing on a left-back (Miller-Neave) to come on and play up front and then later on tin the game we’ve then tried to change it again and bring Mitchell Chapman up front to try to change what we were doing, which in fairness did try to affect the game a little bit in the final 15-20 minutes.”

Longhurst revealed: “We’re going to sign a six foot four centre-forward because we don’t have that option, a target man, we just need that and we’re going to bring in another winger as well, that’s quite similar to what we’ve got but just adds us another goal threat from wide areas.

“Ashley Miller is probably 10 days away from being ready to play.  Peck’s out injured but we were one injury away from not having any players in that area.”

Ramsgate created just the one goalscoring chance during a lacklustre first half performance and they should have taken the lead with it inside 13 minutes.

Jake McIntyre threw the ball to centre-half Jamie Coyle who fed Prescott, who slid to poke the ball back to McIntyre.

The left-back whipped in a quality cross towards the near post where winger Tijan Jadama somehow planted his header past the foot of the left-hand post from six-yards.

“I thought he should score! I think we had four chances, all headed chances, three in the second half and one in the first-half and we haven’t taken them, frustrating,” added Longhurst.

Haywards Heath Town went close from distance shortly afterwards.

Attacking midfielder Jensen Dos Santos played the ball on the outside to right-back Hamish Morrison, who fed Byron Napper who played the ball back to Dos Santos, who spun Ramsgate’s holding midfielder Denzelle Olopade before drilling a speculative right-footed drive from 35-yards across the keeper and just past the left-hand post.

Haywards Heath Town striker Trevor McCreadie was pulled down by Ramsgate’s right-back Jerald Aboagye just outside the penalty area and Dos Santos’ whipped in free-kick which was deflected over the crossbar.

Rowe played the resulting corner in from the right along the by-line to winger Dadigildo Cravid, who played the ball back to Rowe, who whipped in a cross towards the near post for McCreadie to glance his free-header past the right-hand post from six-yards.

“We’ve got to defend better. We should’ve stopped the cross coming in,” said Longhurst.

“I don’t think there was a great deal of quality throughout the game. It wasn’t a free-flowing game of football.  Obviously, the pitch and the conditions were going to have an affect on that.

“I thought first-half they were much better than us and they did try to play a little bit and we did give the ball away a lot in the first half but second half we nullified them playing a little bit and made them go a bit longer and then it was a case of, the game was a little bit bitty if I’m being honest.”

Some sublime wing play from the impressive Alahady Jalloh saw him lift the ball over Coyle’s head down the wing before cutting into the box and putting the chance on a plate for Dos Santos, who swept a first-time shot towards the bottom far corner from 12-yards on the angle, was kept out by the diving Jacob Russell to his right.

Longhurst said: “He caused a few problems in the first-half. Second-half I don’t think he caused us too many problems. Jenson’s a good player as well so Denzelle (Olopade) had his work cut out with him in the first-half and I don’t think Jenson got involved in the game too much and Denzelle did quite a good job against him hence the fact that he came off.”

Jalloh then played in McCreadie in between the two centre-halves and Russell bravely came off his line to smother the ball at the striker’s feet.

Haywards Heath Town continued to dominate and play at a high tempo and another chance came their way in the 33^rd minute.

Ramsgate centre-half Callum Emptage gave the ball away while playing out from the back and Jordy Ndozid played the ball inside to Dos Santos, who teed up an unmarked Jalloh, who drilled a right-footed drive towards the top right-hand corner from 25-yards, only for Russell to pluck the ball out at head height.

“I think that was the story of the first-half. I don’t think we were very good and they were quite good.  You have to give credit to them. I thought they were much brighter than us in the first-half,” admitted the full-time Ramsgate manager.

Ramsgate gave the ball away again inside their defensive third but Haywards Heath’s holding midfielder Napper drilled a first-time drive flashing past the foot of the left-hand post from 22-yards.

Ramsgate weathered the storm and played out the final 10 minutes in a stalemate fashion going into the interval.

“I just said to them, I felt we needed to get a little bit closer to them,” said Longhurst.

“We needed to slightly change the way that we were pressing them so we stopped them getting out and made them go a little bit longer and try to gain some control of the game. 

“We wanted to try to create some room to get the ball up to the front players but it was difficult.

“We’ve got two young players up front and a left-back (Miller-Neave) so that’s where we showed our kind of weakness in the group at the moment with the injuries and the players missing up front.

“We changed it later on in the second half and it made a difference.

“At half-time we said we needed to galvanise ourselves a little bit and we’ve got to stop feeling sorry for ourselves when certain things don’t go well and we’ve got some young players in there and I felt tonight they let themselves down a little bit.”

Haywards Heath Town deservedly smashed the stalemate with eight and a half minutes into the second half.

Rowe played the ball into Dos Santos, who played a first-time pass back to Rowe inside the final third and after Emptage gave the ball back to him, Rowe produced a composed right-footed finish underneath Russell to slot home into the centre of the goal from 10-yards.

“I think Eze stepped inside and tried to hit a big diagonal and it’s dropped onto the left-back and Josh (Ajayi) has then kind of given up the chase and hasn’t gone with him and then he’s had 10-12 touches going towards our goal and there’s no engagement with the ball.

“Dos Santos is a decent player and it’s a little one-two. I think we had an opportunity to clear it – I think it was Callum Emptage – and didn’t and it’s come back to him and it’s a decent finish from the lad but from our point of view it was a poor goal.”

Russell was called into action to prevent Haywards Heath Town doubling their lead on the hour-mark.

Rowe threaded the ball in behind Aboagye to put Ndozid through on goal on the angle but his right-footed angled drive from 15-yards was parried by Russell, getting down low to his right at his near post to make a vital save and McCreadie placed the rebound past the foot of the near post.

Winger Cravid went on a 30-yard run (without the Ramsgate defence pressing him) before dragging a poor shot past the left-hand post as the home side went to kill the game off.

Longhurst made a tactical switch with 22 minutes remaining and off came Emptage and on came Mitchell Chapman.

Peck’s early replacement, Karn Miller-Neave, slotted in at left-back with Ramsgate’s two centre-halves being McIntyre and Coyle, with Aboagye remaining at right-back.  Chapman played further forward in a number 10 role, while Oliver Bate, Tijan Jadama and Joshua Ajayi offered very little in attack for most of the game.

Ramsgate had to wait until the 86^th minute to create their second chance of the night to snatch an unlikely point.

Aboagye threw the ball short to Chapman, who rolled the ball a couple of yards back to Aboagye, who whipped in a first-time cross close to the corner flag towards the near-post.

Jadama teed up Ebuzoeme, who lashed his first-time drive over the top of the near post from eight-yards.

“A decent half-chance, a half-chance really, it’s a half-chance. It’s a good little bit of play. It’s difficult hitting the ball off the surface like this, a half-chance,” admitted Longhurst.

Originally, there was to be five minutes of added time but an injury to Haywards Heath centre-half Sinn Christie (who started many attacks when he received the ball from goalkeeper Billy Collings) went down with a knock and hobbled off after treatment.

Ramsgate squandered a glorious chance to snatch an equaliser with 51:-01 on the clock.

Keeper Russell slipped after launching a big kick upfield, the ball was flicked on to Chapman down the left and he clipped a cross into the goal-mouth where Ajayi’s downward header bounced past the near post from three-yards out.

Longhurst said: “He’s got to score! He has to score and the position we’re in, in the league when you’re in the play-offs that’s a big chance and a big moment and you come away one-all having not played great, you take it on the chin and move on to the next game.

“We’ve created some chances at the end of the game that we should take and we didn’t take them.”

Miller-Neave swung in Ramsgate’s third and final corner from the left towards the back post where Coyle’s diving header flashed through a crowd of players and past the right-hand post.

McIntyre’s poor back header towards Russell was intercepted by Jalloh, who failed to capitalise, nodding the ball harmlessly wide when he only had Russell to beat before the referee blew for full-time with 54:44 on the clock.

Hastings United remain at the summit with 59 points from 27 out of 38 games and are favourites to win the title and promotion into the Isthmian League Premier Division.

The play-off places contain Cray Valley (53 points from 27 games), Ramsgate (50 points), Ashford United (49 points from 26 games) and Haywards Heath Town (49 points from 26 games).

Herne Bay are outside with 47 points from 25 games and Ben Smith takes his side to seventh-placed VCD Athletic on Saturday, with Nick Davis’ side on 42 points from 27 games.

“We’re probably a little bit ahead of the curve in terms of where we’re at at the moment, we’re punching above our weight in the sense of we’re such a young group but it’s my job now to get the players back on the training ground on Thursday,” added Longhurst.

“We can’t beat them up too much because they are a young group. We’ve spoken to them tonight and we’ve explained to them where we need to be better but ultimately these boys have done great this year and they’ll continue to do that and we go again on Saturday (at home to eleventh-placed Corinthian) and before Saturday we’ll have two centre-forwards signed, which I know are coming in, I just couldn’t get them done in time for tonight.

“I think we’ve got to do better in the big games but I think some of the other games will take care of themselves.  I think we’ve been a little bit hit and miss when it comes to the bigger games and it’s something that we need to look at because there’s 11 games left for us now, we’ve got 33 points to play for and we’re not in the play-offs yet and that’s what we’ve just reminded the boys.

“We’ve got to start getting some level of consistency in remain in the position. We’ve done brilliant and we’ve got ourselves in a fantastic position but (we have) to stay there.”

Michael Golding has guided Corinthian to a respectable midtable position with 38 points with 11 games remaining and Longhurst is coming up against a former club at Prices Avenue and Ramsgate must put in a vastly-improved performance, having now lost two of their last three games.

“Corinthian will be very tough.  They make life very difficult, they’re very together, they work very, very hard and they’ll come here and they’ll be desperate to beat us so we need to make sure that we’re at our best,” added Longhurst.

Haywards Heath Town: Billy Collings, Hamish Morrison, Kieran Rowe, Byron Napper, Tom Cadman, Sinn Christie (Ben Holden 90), Dadigildo Cravid (Adam Aziz 82), Jordy Ndozid, Trevor McCreadie, Jensen Dos Santos (Sam Remfry 80), Alahady Jalloh.
Subs: Tom Graves, Liam Benson

Goal: Kieran Rowe 54

Booked: Trevor McCreadie 82

Ramsgate: Jacob Russell, Jerald Aboagye, Jake McIntyre, Denzelle Olopade, Callum Emptage (Mitchell Chapman 68), Jamie Coyle, Callum Peck (Karn Miller-Neave 10), Lee Prescott (Ezechukwu Ebuzoeme 31), Oliver Bate, Joshua Ajayi, Tijan Jadama.
Subs: Ashley Miller, William Hoare

Booked: Lee Prescott 28, Jerald Aboagye 52

Attendance: 275
Referee: Mr Daniel Simpson
Assistants: Mr Chris Britton & Mr Chris Bowdery