My chairman will not cut my budget if we lose in FA Trophy, says Rams boss Jim Ward

RAMSGATE boss Jim Ward says his playing budget will not be cut if they are eliminated from The FA Carlsberg Trophy on Saturday, writes Stephen McCartney.


The Rams were knocked out of The FA Cup by Whitehawk in the preliminary round, thus not picking up any prize money, and welcome Needham Market to Southwood Stadium in the preliminary round of The FA Trophy on Saturday.

The newly promoted Suffolk side sit in eighth place in the Ryman League Division One North table with four wins and three draws from their nine league outings, whilst Ramsgate are in 12^th place in the Ryman League Division One South table with four wins and two draws from ten games.

Ward said: “I expect to win. It’s about time we won one of these Cup games.  They’ve been a bit of a let down in the last couple of games.

“We’ve drawn the first game in the FA Cup last year and then we got knocked out – and the first round of the FA Trophy and got knocked out – and the same again this year so we’re looking forward to Needham Market coming down.

“They’ve got a long way to come down.  They’re a Ryman North club so they’re at the same standard as us so we expect to be positive and win the game.”

With £2,000 at stake for the winners at the weekend, Ward would like to bank some cash of the club, although he revealed his budget will not be cut if they are eliminated at the first hurdle.

“Without a doubt, it will keep the chairman smiling,” he said.

“From my point of view I just want to win every football game I play, so it will be nice to beat them.

“A lot of chairman do set a budget out and when club’s go out of The FA Cup and FA Trophy, it happens a lot in October, they tend to cut the expenses bill.  We don’t have that policy here.  We set a budget and we try our (hardest) to stay to it.”

Ward admitted he was disappointed with the month of September, which saw his side fail to win any of their seven games.

When asked about Ramsgate’s campaign so far, Ward said: “It depends which month you’re talking about because August we started the season and it was fantastic, September was rotten.  There’s no getting away from the fact.

“We had Whitehawk in three games in September, but we’ve got nothing out of September at all.  We’re disgusted with it and we’re all working doubly hard to try and get back (to winning ways).”

But he did add: “We got a workmanlike 2-1 win over Whyteleafe on Saturday (1 October), so maybe we’ve turned the corner.”

Bognor Regis Town, presently in third place with six wins and two draws from their opening nine league games, arrive at Southwood Stadium for a league game next Tuesday if Saturday’s Trophy tie is not drawn.

The West Sussex outfit are three points behind early pacesetters Dulwich Hamlet.

“Bognor will win the league, all the other managers I spoke to they all tell me,” said Ward.

“They should have won the league last year but for some strange reason they didn’t.  They’re head and shoulders.  They’ve got the facilities, they’ve got the money, they’ve got the players, the management, they’ve got everything in place.

“They would win the division above (the Ryman Premier League), they would.  They’re a great outfit.  We enjoy playing all these big teams so we’ll set our stall out on Tuesday night against Bognor and have a right good go.”

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

Ramsgate  v  Needham Market
The FA Carlsberg Trophy Preliminary Round
Saturday 8^th October 2011
Kick Off 3:00pm
at Southwood Stadium, Prices Avenue, Ramsgate, Kent CT11 0AN