1 day Ago By [email protected] (Craig Tucker)
Manager Ben Smith says he hopes Ramsgate get the credit they deserve after winning the Isthmian South East title. Rams clinched the championship with a 4-0 win at Hythe on Good Friday, backed by hundreds of travelling fans in a crowd of 1,226 at Reachfields. Supporters poured on to the pitch at full-time to celebrate after the club landed their first league title since Jim Ward delivered the Isthmian Division 1 crown in 2006.
The party continued back at Southwood as Ramsgate toasted an astonishing season that’s seen them accumulate 108 points from a possible 120, with two games still to play. With title rivals Sittingbourne held 1-1 by Burgess Hill, a point would have been enough to take the league. But Rams did it in style with goals from TJ Jadama, Jay Leader, Alfie Paxman and Joe Taylor in another big victory.
Smith accused Ramsgate of bottling their play-off semi-final against Chichester a year ago after being pipped by Cray Valley in an epic championship scrap. He left the club weeks later but quickly returned, initially as caretaker, when successor Tony Russell quit inside a month. And they’re now celebrating a place in the Isthmian Premier.
“What a difference 12 months makes,” said Smith. “I was standing with microphones in my face and I got an awful lot of abuse and God knows what over my words. “But it was a blessing in disguise not going up last year when you look at the scenes here today.
“What we’ve built at this football club, that started way before me with James Lawson, the chairman. “He took a lot of stick last summer as well and what we’ve done is get together, regrouped, we’ve shut out the outside noise and let’s see if people give us the credit we deserve because he’s built the club up to be a sustainable football club and many people don’t mention that. “It’s the perfect model for non-league football.
“I was gutted not to get promoted last year after the season we’d had and it’s taken a lot of character from a lot of people to get over that and be willing to get up and go again. “It’s a story of perseverance and resilience and every single one of the supporters and players have believed since day one at AFC Croydon, when we scored in the 96th minute to win the game. “At that point, no one knew if we’d be a good side, a bad side, after pre-season where we had six players in our first session back and being interim manager.
Report: Hythe Town 0-4 Ramsgate “To culminate in being here and winning 4-0, it’s just incredible. “Look at the support levels. This club is bigger than these leagues and we’ve said that before and been hammered for it but I’m not afraid to say it, it is and it deserves to go higher.
“Let’s start planning for next season now but first of all the boys deserve a massive party. “This is a proper football club and I’m so delighted for everyone.” Smith dedicated Ramsgate’s success to supporters Kevin Stupples, who died after falling ill following last season’s play-off game, and Ronnie Megrath, who has Motor Neurone Disease.
Smith shared an embrace with Megrath shortly after the full-time whistle and broke down in tears remembering Stupples, whose name was sung by Rams fans during the match. “You look at Ronnie,” said Smith. “We had the fundraising walk for him earlier in the season and he’s been an inspiration to us.
“Kevin Stupples, he died the night of the play-off defeat against Chichester, and that’s something that’s always stuck with me as someone who was very supportive and his last act was seeing us go out in those play-offs the way we did. “But the crowd were singing his name and that one’s for him, that one’s for Ronnie and that’s for all the people at the club that have worked so hard. “There’s so many people we’ve done it for, and it’s a long old season, but I can’t do this talk without mentioning Sittingbourne.
“They pushed us all the way and we know how that feels, coming second in a race like this, but the consistency we’ve shown is a joke. “I think the chairman said in his programme notes the other week, if it was easy it wouldn’t be worth doing, and he’s right. “We’ve finally got over the line and I’m so pleased for someone like TJ, the local hero, to get that first goal today.
“I said to him, ‘This is your chance to be a Ramsgate legend’, up there with the Warren Schulzes of this world who for so many years did so many great things for the club, and he’s gone and done that. “He’s written himself into the history books.” It’s a second promotion in management for Smith, who led Herne Bay to play-off glory in the same division three years ago.
He’d been due to go back to Bay before taking the Ramsgate job in the summer of 2023. And while his time at Southwood appeared to be over when he was replaced by Russell, the championship completes a remarkable comeback. “I was done with the club but testament to myself, to James, it was the right thing for me to be at Ramsgate,” said Smith.
“I thought that from minute one. “I always felt I had unfinished business. I didn’t want to go out the way I went out in that Chichester game.
“It’s not how I deserved or my team deserved to go out. “I’m so pleased we put our pride to one side and both came together. “It’s been an unbelievable season and we’ve got on like a house on fire.
“Testament to James, Seb Tidey, the director of football, Sean Hill, who’s stepped up this year as head coach, Darren Beale, the assistant manager, and Joe Ellul, who’s supported us as a management team. “People like Lee Martin took a chance on Ramsgate and it won’t be money that keeps them here, it will be the fact they’re so well looked after and loved. “Again, it’s naivety from outside, people going, ‘Ramsgate, money, money, money’.
No, it isn’t that, it’s so much more than that. “We’re not the only ones that pay money in this league but we do it all properly, and the style of football we play, I hear so many times, you can’t get out of these leagues playing that way, but we absolutely can, and we have. “We’re one of the best teams the Isthmian South East has ever seen, and that’s a fact.
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