It's time to go and find myself another job, says Ward

Danny will stand alongside Jim for their last two games of the season, before leaving Southwood Stadium to take charge of a team of his own.

“I’ve decided to go out on my own and become a first team manager instead of an assistant,” Danny Ward told www.kentishfootball.co.uk.

“There’s a couple of teams that I’m interested in and they’re interested in me, but they’ve still got managers at the moment.

“I want (to manage) an ambitious Kent League team or an ambitious Ryman One side.

“It’s a difficult time of the season to get a job obviously, I might have to wait until the end of the season, but I’ve got to wait and see what happens.”

The Ward brothers have brought plenty of trophies to Southwood Stadium during their two-spell partnership, but their best period follows below.

In 2004-05 the Kent League title was won and the following season they clinched the Ryman League Division One South title at the first attempt.

They also led the club to the first round proper of the FA Cup - for the first time in 50 years - when they were knocked out by Blue Square North side Nuneaton Borough.

AFC Wimbledon ended the club’s FA Trophy run, at the second attempt, in the second qualifying round, and reached the last four of the Kent Senior Cup, losing to a Bromley side that went on to win the cup.

Last season, the club won the Ryman League Cup, with a penalty shoot out victory over AFC Sudbury at Dartford’s Princes Park, but promotion into the Blue Square South was thwarted as they lost out to Staines Town in the play-off’s, having finished in fifth place.

But this season has been a nightmare. Southwood Stadium is no longer a fortress - something that the Thanet club was renowned for during their glory years.

Dean Hill, Ollie Shchulz, Shaun Welford and Sam Jones defected to Dover Athletic, who went on to comfortably clinch the Ryman Premier League title - and the Rams were a patch on their former self.

As a result, the club go into their last two games sitting rock bottom in the table, with eight wins and eleven draws, and will be playing Ryman League Division One South football next season.

“It’s been rather successful, we’ve won plenty of trophies in the last four or five years since we’ve had promotion from the Kent League, but it’s time to go and find another job,” said Ward.

“It was always going to happen, it’s a pity it’s happened in the year when we’ve got relegated.”

But Danny quashed rumours that his older brother Jim will follow him out of the door at the end of the season, by adding, “I didn’t want his job, he’s job’s at Ramsgate. I want my job and start again at another club and hopefully I can have the same success as I’ve had at Ramsgate over the last five years.”

Ramsgate’s fans’ forum speculated that Danny is heading to neighbouring Bulmers Cider Kent League side Deal Town.

But he remained tight-lipped on his destination, saying, “I’ve had a couple of tentative discussions with a few people, no more than that.

“Hopefully something will come up in the next few weeks. At the moment I haven’t got a job (next season). I’m still at Ramsgate until the end of the season unless something comes in before then. It all depends if anybody wants me. I’m available if anybody’s interested in speaking to me.”

He added, “I want to be the manager, I’ve had a partnership with my brother. In the end no matter what happens he’s manager.

“I don’t think I can have more success as an assistant manager, but I’ve got ideas of my own that I want to implement next season.”

Ramsgate travel to Dartford on Saturday on the back of six straight defeats, but Ward refused to blame the four-points deduction for their downfall.

“I don’t think that’s the reason why we got relegated,” Danny said. “We got relegated because we deserved to get relegated. The league doesn’t lie. We lost too many experienced players, if you like to call them Ramsgate players, people who do Ramsgate jobs and play like Ramsgate.

“All you have to do is look around in Kent and look at Dover and see they’ve won the league with Ramsgate players. We lost too much experience.”

Ramsgate have just pride to play for in their remaining two games, against Dartford at Princes Park and at home to Ashford Town (Middlesex) on the last day of the season.

“With two games to go we’re attempting to win both the two games,” said Ward.

“We got beat (by Dartford) over Christmas and it was not a very good match. It should have been 0-0, like the match against Margate on Monday.

“Last season we would probably have won both games, it’s just the way our season has gone.

“We’re going out with a bit of a whimper, but we’ve got two games to go and we want to give the fans something to sing about.”

Speaking about the fans, Danny added, “I’ve got no complaints about the fans at all, they’ve given us unbelievable backing. There may not be hundreds of them, but what they do is they give you noise and it will be sad not to see them after this season.”

Visit Ramsgate’s website: www.ramsgate-fc.co.uk

Dartford v Ramsgate
Ryman Premier League
Saturday 18^th April 2009
Kick Off 3:00pm
At Princes Park Stadium, Grassbanks, Darenth Road, Dartford, Kent DA1 1RT