After the 1-3 win against Bridges we are back at TPF against
Ramsgate are currently the number 10 in the table with 38 points out of 31 games.
They scored 48 and conceded 46 goals. Topscorers are Smith with 13 and Chapman with 11 goals.
The Rams last victory was against Herne away 1-5 and then from the following 7 games they drew 5 and lost 2.
Remember our game against them away which we won 2-3: Hastings United Football Club made it two wins out of two with a tense away victory this afternoon (Saturday).
Chris Agutter’s side won 3-2 in a see-saw game at Ramsgate to sit top of the embryonic Bostik League South East Division table.
Two Daniel Ajakaiye goals and one from Dayshonne Golding gave Hastings the points from a game in which they performed far better during the second half than the first.
Agutter made two changes to the side which won 5-1 at home to Thamesmead Town last weekend. Tom Climpson replaced Tom Vickers in defence and Jack Dixon, back from suspension, came in for the holidaying Sam Adams in midfield.
Hastings were all over the place defensively at times during the first half and could count themselves fortunate to only be trailing 2-1 at the break as it could’ve been four or five.
Ramsgate’s former Hastings player, Harry Stannard, caused all sorts of problems out wide and away goalkeeper Charlie Horlock kept Hastings in the game with several good stops, including a brilliant double save.
Hastings, nonetheless, opened the scoring slightly against the run of play in the 30th minute.
The visitors won possession in their own half and Ansu Janneh played a beautiful ball through a crowd of players for Ajakaiye to latch onto and slot past home goalkeeper Luke Watkins.
The lead lasted just two minutes, however. Stannard was again involved and Rory Smith’s shot went in off the post.
Ramsgate hit the front shortly before the interval. Hastings failed to clear their defensive lines and Tom Chapman lashed a shot from the edge of the area into the bottom corner.
Hastings were a different side, though, during the second period. Antonio Walker and Emmanuel Mensah came off the bench and turned the game on its head as Hastings became a slick attacking outfit.
Hastings made it 2-2 in the 56th minute. Ajakaiye won possession on halfway and put Golding in on goal, and Golding - who was as threatening for Hastings as Stannard was for Ramsgate - applied the finish.
The same two players were at the heart of the winning goal 15 minutes later. Golding and Ajakaiye played a lovely one-two, which led to Ajakaiye passing into an almost empty net for his fourth goal in two matches.
Hastings had a couple of chances thereafter to finish things off - Golding shot wide following a great ball from Sam Cruttwell and Walker hit the post.
Ramsgate fashioned a couple of half-chances at the other end and always carried a threat, although Hastings saw the game out fairly comfortably.
Ajakaiye and, in particular, Golding were almost unplayable, while Cruttwell and Horlock also produced fine performances for a Hastings team which has already netted eight goals this term.
And we? Because the teams who are in the play offs now are so close every victory is almost a must. Also that the average points per game are very important because not all the teams will get promotion!
Good workmanlike performance against a useful Ramsgate , although never looked like losing. Impressed by their No. 9 . Almost certainly now in playoffs.
Not too much to report on this routine victory. Felt we were the better side throughout without ever reaching our clinical best. What can't be denied is that we have some exceptionally skilful and pacy players amongst this young side and combined with the footballing ethic they are all buying into they are good to watch. The only disappointment today was that the gate didn't exceed the 500 mark. Maybe the good weather kept people away rather than brought them to watch football.
Very comfortable and professional performance from Hastings today against what I thought was a very useful looking Ramsgate side. Their number 7 was excellent. Thought Hastings were pretty dominant throughout and when Ramsgate did look dangerous Rogers was excellent between the sticks. Could have scored seven or eight today and every time we attacked we looked like we would score. Have been critical at times this season of Fielding and Azeez but both were excellent today. Great goal from Bradley but jury still out on his work rate and didn’t see much difference from two seasons ago but early days. Daniel picked up MOM but thought Dixon yet again was the stand out player. Only disappointment for me today were the terrible antics of Rodari when he came in today. Deservedly booked today for continuous diving, screaming and play acting and no place for it at the Pilot Field. Great player but no need.
Very well done again today. Chris certainly has them hitting top form just at the right time and how strong was our bench today with Hass not even there. Really excited about the next few weeks.
Couldn’t agree more John, he got away with one against Cray but looks like word is getting around. All it will mean is he’ll stop being given genuine free kicks. He’s a good player, doesn’t need to do this.
I feel it may well have been Rodari's growing reputation for rather exaggerating any knocks he gets plus the odd bit of 'simulation' that may well have cost us a genuine penalty at Three Bridges the previous week. Maybe he's spent too long watching the antics of fellow countryman Fernando Forestieri. Certainly this is not what we want to see at the PF.
David's dives are ridiculous but if a bit of simulation wins us a match winning penalty in the play off final I won't be complaining. Certainly needs to work on his technique or as Mick says, it will cost us as refs will stop giving obvious fouls,pens.
David's dives are ridiculous but if a bit of simulation wins us a match winning penalty in the play off final I won't be complaining. Certainly needs to work on his technique or as Mick says, it will cost us as refs will stop giving obvious fouls,pens.
My take is that it costs us regardless. If you're a team that predominantly plays on the back foot, then a forward who wins free kicks, generally irritates the opposition defenders and drags the referee into the game can be quite handy; Diego Costa at Atletico Madrid would be a prime example.
But we're not that team. We want to keep the ball moving as much as possible. If we end up in a scrappy, bad-tempered game in which the referee's constantly being required to make decisions, that will almost always suit our opponents more than it suits us. It's in their interests to break up play and to prevent us from getting our tempo up; it's in our interests to keep the game flowing.
There were occasions last season when so much energy was being spent on Rodari and Golding winding up their opponents and complaining to the referee that the rest almost became an afterthought. One of the things we've done really, really well this season -with a couple of exceptions - is to avoid getting dragged into that kind of distracting nonsense. It'd be a great shame if that changed now, particularly given the intensity of the games that are likely to come. We're a much, much better side when we concentrate on our strengths.
That aside, I thought there were a couple of notable positives, having not seen us since the Haywards Heath defeat. We defended their counter-attacks better, but we also had much greater variety to our own attacking play. The presence of Tucker, particularly, means that teams can't simply disregard the set piece threat; Haywards Heath were able to concede corners quite happily.
I like Stevenson too. One of the (few) things we've really lacked this season is a reason to put an early ball into the box every now and again; there have been too many games (Haywards Heath again) in which opponents have been able to be very confident that the ball wasn't coming in because there was nobody around who might win it. He adds some physical presence, which is very welcome. I'd challenge him to be more aggressive and score us a few scrappy goals at the far post.
