This rearranged fixture was made ‘pay what you like’ by Herne Bay FC with proceeds going to the Air Ambulance Service that had attended the original abandoned fixture and air lifted Lee Browning to hospital.

A preliminary figure of £1,200 was announced that will be donated to this worthy cause.

Herne Bay’s goalkeeper, Jack Delo, was presented with a tankard sponsored by the Herne Bay FC Supporters Association prior to the match to mark 350 appearances for the Winch’s Field outfit.

The largesse spilled over into the game with the home side gifting the Rams a head start with only 26 seconds on the watch of referee Paul Yates who had an exemplary game in the middle. Aaron Quain was left in blissful isolation on the left and he ghosted in for the simplest of tap-ins.

Twelve minutes later Joe Taylor, with a suspicion of offside surrounding his run, rammed home a second for the visitors who had dominated the early exchanges, just as they had in the original match but in that one had failed to take advantage.

Bay grew back into the game as they had to if they were to keep any chance of a play-off place alive. Ramsgate are already out of that particular race.

The clawback duly came just after the half hour mark when Sam Hasler’s right wing corner was lifted high left footed toward the back post. Rams’ custodian Luke Watkins miss-judged the flight and the ball rebounded off the inside of the far post and into the net without further intervention.

Four minutes before the break, Danny Williams fired over when looking well set to score the equaliser.

After the turnaround Herne Bay strode forward with more urgency and purpose with Ramsgate seemingly having run out of steam. But for all their efforts, chances fell to Hasler, Walder, Williams and substitute Phillip, Bay were destined to finish with their fifth successive reverse, a slump that has seen them plummet from play-off contenders to the unlikely position of scrabbling to maintain a top ten finish.

 

Herne Bay: Jack Delo, Michael Turner, Gary Sayer, Dan Johnson, Liam Quin (Joe Nelder 77), Connor Sanders, Danny Walder, Dan Parkinson (Kane Phillip 59), Danny Williams, James Turner (Elliott Cutts 59), Sam Hasler.

Subs not used: Ben Emery, Sam Hallett

Sent Off: none  Cautioned: none.

 

Ramsgate: Luke Watkins, Jake McKenzie, Jack Penny (Tom Loynes 65), Joe Kane, Luke Wheatley, Luke Girt, Oliver Gray, Wayne Wilson, Kane Rowland, Joe Taylor, Aaron Quain.

Subs not used: Matt Adams, Lloyd Blackman, Lewis Stevens-Toomey, Jake Munday.

Sent Off: none              Cautioned: none.

 

Referee:  Paul Yates                  Assistant Referees: Lou Saunders & Craig Burton.

 

Herne Bay (1) 1

Sam Hasler 33

 

Ramsgate (2) 2

Aaron Quain 1

Joe Taylor 13

 

Attendance: 370

 

Ryman Isthmian League Division One (South)

Tuesday 5^th April 2016

(at The Altira Park Stadium, Winch’s Field)

 

Photo credit: Steve Barton – Jack Delo’s 350^th appearance recognised by supporters.