Ramsgate (2) 4 Carvalho 27 Rowland 44,68 Riley-Snow 66
Tonbridge Angels (1) 3 Greenidge 15 Rutherford 54 Tommy Wood (pen) 60
Attendance: 240
Admission: Pass
Programme: Free
Mileage: 100/6,066
Three cup competitions, three mishaps against lower league teams, whoever is in charge from George Cohen through to Jay Saunders, some things never change.
The Kent Senior Cup was never on the high priority list but a Cup Final day out at Gillingham was something that could be looked forward as an end of season reward for supporters. But, sadly, our Cup jinx endures for another year.
Jay Saunders either rested or had unavailable six of Saturday’s starting line-up and, to be honest, it showed in a performance that was way below par.
Ramsgate are a progressive club on and off the pitch; leading Isthmian South East and engaging with the local community to great effect with the advent of their 3G pitch a couple of years ago.
The evening started well enough with the Angels on top and eventually going in front on 15 minutes through Jordan Greenidge, who cut in from the right to fire into the bottom corner from the edge of the box.
Two minutes later, Greenidge had the ball in the net again with a well placed header but this was ruled out with a debatable offside decision. At 2-0 up, who knows?
Tonbridge continued to hold the majority of the play, so it was somewhat against the run of play when Ramsgate equalised with a goal from Gil Carvalho after a cross from Callum Emptage found the scorer getting in front of Tariq Hinds.
Greenidge created his own opportunity to restore the lead on 35 minutes but dragged his shot wide
If questions were to be asked of the defending for the opening goal, they certainly needed asking for the second as Kane Rowland was allowed to meet a cross unchallenged to deflect the ball past a static George Bentley.
As the weather deteriorated from a light drizzle to a torrential downpour that had the Tonbridge contingent scuttling back to the covered terrace that is set back some distance, their side came out for the second half full of attacking intent to retrieve the game. Tommie Fagg struck a good shot that was parried to safety by Josh Bexon before, in the 54th minute, after an initial cross from the right by Jack Wood, the ball fell to Fyn Rutherford who curled his shot into the top corner for the equaliser.
Tonbridge were in front five minutes later when they were awarded a penalty after Tommy Wood was brought down. The striker took the penalty himself to send Bexon the wrong way.
In two horrible minutes for goalkeeper Bentley, the tie was turned on its head in favour of Ramsgate. Firstly, on 66 minutes, a shot from 30 yards by Blaise Riley-Snow crept under the keeper to gift the home side an equaliser and, two minutes later, a heavy touch from a back pass ended with a clearance straight to a Ramsgate player who touched it inside to Rowland for the easiest of tasks to stroke the ball into an unguarded goal.
Such was the erratic nature of the game, it felt that there were more goals to come but Aransibia pulled a shot wide in the best of the late opportunities.
So, another year passes without cup success; should three points be won at Havant in the quest for a play-off spot on Saturday, this will be quickly forgotten. But, for now, this was a lost opportunity.
