Wasps shock the Rams- and the Brickies reduce the gap to five points

Leaders Ramsgate travelled to East Grinstead Town with a one hundred percent away record and an eight point lead at the top- and they left Sussex with that lead cut to five points and a late red card.

The Wasps had struggled at home, winning only two of eight fixtures on their own patch, but Finlay Lovatt decided to improve matters. The Town number ten opened the scoring on seventeen minutes, chipping the ball into the top corner, and despite pressure from the visitors the hosts held out, and on the hour Lovatt found the corner of the net to make it two-nil. As expected the Rams piled on the pressure, and Joe Taylor put a penalty away eight minutes from time- his twenty ninth goal of the season. 

That coincided with an injury to the referee, and there was a long, long delay, before one of the Assistant referees took over in the middle and another qualified official was found to run the line. The match was ten minutes into added time when it restarted, and it saw visiting keeper Tom Hadler- and apparently boss Ben Smith- dismissed. The ten men couldn’t find a way back into the match, and the hosts picked up three valuable points which lifted them to fifteenth.

Second place Sittingbourne have been in superb form, and took their unbeaten run to sixteen matches in all competitions with a narrow win at Littlehampton Town. The Brickies have been rather free-scoring this season, but the Golds restricted them to one- James Bessey-Saldanha scoring six minutes into the second half. Town’s chances of an equaliser were hampered by a red card for Dion Jarvis twelve minutes later, and the ten men couldn’t find a way through.

Sittingbourne are now five points behind the leaders with a game in hand. The only side to defeat them in the League so far this season are Ramsgate- and the two will meet again on the last day of the season. Littlehampton are seventeenth. 

Image from Tommy McMillan. 

Ashford United were in fine form, with four wins in a row, but that came to an end at Merstham on Saturday so they wanted to bounce back as they welcomed AFC Croydon Athletic. The Nuts and Bolts made the breakthrough nine minutes into the second half, Barry Fuller with the goal- but the travelling Rams hit back to take a point ten minutes from time, Walter Figueira the scorer. 

In the Velocity Cup Fourth Round Dartford travelled to take on South East promotion chasers Sheppey United, and were undone- particularly in the closing stages as they chased an equaliser. The Darts are seven unbeaten in the league and in decent form, whilst the Ites were looking for a fourth successive victory, so we thought this one might be close- and for most of the ninety minutes it was, and then, it wasn’t. Sheppey went ahead on seventeen minutes courtesy of Dan Bradshaw, and it was a lead they held despite the Darts making several second half changes as they looked for a way back. In the very last minute they added a second, James Taylor with it, and five minutes into added time the Darts League Cup campaign well and truly came to an end as Victor Aiye scored for his third match in a row. Three-nil was the final score. 

We also had an all-South East Third Round tie, as Merstham welcomed Burgess Hill Town. The Hillians saw a long, long unbeaten run depart with a surprise defeat against Broadbridge Heath on Saturday, but very quickly bounced back from that, and in so doing ended an unbeaten home run stretching back to August 24th.

Hill went ahead on eleven minutes through Ben Pope, but the hosts took only a minute to equalise, Sam King getting the goal. Pope quickly made it two-one, indeed it took him nine minutes, and then the visitors took a stranglehold on the match, Noah Hoffman added a third and a fourth to make it four-one at half time. Korrey Henry got a goal back for Merstham just before the hour, but that was as good as it got for the home faithful, and the match ended four-two- or indeed two-four.