Ward relishes Moroccan friendly - EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

Jim Ward has promised Ramsgate fans that he will be fielding a strong squad for their prestigious friendly against a Moroccan representative side at Southwood Stadium on Wednesday night, writes Stephen McCartney.

Moroccan Chuck Martini, who plays in goal for Ryman League Division One South outfit Molesey, is sending a Moroccan representative side down to Southwood Stadium to face the Ryman Premier League side.

The Rams booked their place in the semi-finals of the Kent Senior Cup for the second successive season on Monday night, beating nine-man Tonbridge Angels.

Akwasi Edusei capitalised on a blunder from Tonbridge Angels’ goalkeeper Matt Bromby, who was making only his second start this season, to score the only goal of the game after just 124 seconds.

“We’ll be full strength Wednesday night,” Ward revealed EXCLUSIVELY to www.kentishfootball.co.uk after their 1-0 win at a bitterly cold Betterview Longmead Stadium.

“This Moroccan outfit are coming across, they’re very strong so we’ll give it the respect it deserves and hopefully get a few people to come and watch.

“I don’t really know much about them. Chuck Martini has had a lot of caps for Morocco and he’s bringing a side down.

“It’s a rep side from Morocco and we’ll treat it with the respect and if anyone’s injured obviously they won’t play.”

But Ward is taking nothing for granted when his side travel to Stag Meadow in Windsor on Saturday to play basement boys Slough Town.

The Rebels are currently rooted to the foot of the Ryman Premier League table needing a miracle to remain in the division.

“Slough are a much bigger club than Ramsgate Football Club, much bigger,” he said.

“We’ll go there and again they’ll be showed all the respect in the world.

“The first thing we’ll do is to keep another clean sheet. We’ve now kept three in a row, which is the best we’ve done for a few years.

“People say we kept letting in goals at the start of the season, well, all of a sudden a lot of big things happened tonight for us.

“Dean Hill amazingly came through ninety minutes - I think he’s the best left-back in the league.

“He had to play centre half tonight because of injuries to both Will Graham and Liam Morris so I had to pitch him in next to Ollie (Schulz) who wasn’t 100% himself.”

Currently in seventh place, and a play-off position well in their grasp, Ramsgate lock horns against three sides that are also vying for honours this season.

“We play Slough, then we play five of the top six,” said Ward. “If we can get three points, I don’t want to look further ahead than the Slough game if I’m honest with you because we’ve done that this year and nothing’s happened for us.

“So we’ll go to Slough and win but we know we have to play a lot of the big-boys.

“At the moment we’re going through our best bits of form of the whole season so everyone better be aware!”

Ward explained why he calls his rivals bigger clubs than Ramsgate.

“They are big clubs,” he said. “We’re on the up, no-one can say anything else except that about Ramsgate Football Club.

“This is the highest level that Ramsgate Football Club has ever been to. The highest ever position Ramsgate Football Club has ever been in was in October when I think we were second in the Ryman League premier - they’ve never, never been any higher.

“All these clubs have all been higher, they’ve all done better. They’re all big clubs.

“I’m not saying they’re better clubs. I’m just saying in the past and now they’re bigger clubs than us but we give them all the respect the deserve and I know a lot of them now are thinking about giving us as much as we deserve.

“Well, we are what we are. We just turn up, get in the changing room, pick the best eleven that are available and get on with it.

“The ones who are left out there’s no sulking because there’s no superstars in my changing room. We know the qualities we’ve got.”

And Ward is relishing their Kent Senior Cup semi-final tie, which is yet to be drawn.

He added: “It’s something to tuck away for the next couple of weeks, something to look forward to.”

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