Rams To The Slaughter

In a few days time I will be watching on at Plough Lane as League Two AFC Wimbledon play host to the mighty Ipswich Town, who lie 2nd in the Championship, in the FA Cup 3rd round.

The Dons will be staring that game as massive underdogs, so for now lets go back a month and a round to a match where the Don’s were huge favourites against their 8th tier visitors, Ramsgate Town.

Ramsgate hail from Kent, just 4 miles from rivals Margate, and ply their amateur trade in the Isthmian League South East Division alongside Cray Valley Paper Mills.

The Millers were destroyed by Charlton in a home replay in the 1st round, but they managed a creditable draw in the away tie. Could their league rivals do something similar away to the Dons? They had already beaten 6 opponents on their way to the 2nd round.

Half of their victims were higher league opposition, though none were members of the exclusive 92.

For the Don’s part they had to take on League One opposition to get here, in the shape of struggling Cheltenham Town, which they managed with aplomb scoring 5 on the way to a heartening 5-1 win.

With the allure of a home tie against Ipswich already on the table before kick-off neither team was likely to lack motivation and one team came charging out the traps.

The hosts were wombling into the lead just 8 minutes into the match, but it would have been 30 seconds earlier if Connor Lemonheigh-Evans hadn’t spurned a free-header from 4 yards out as he found space to meet a tantalising freekick swung straight too him.

Perhaps such a glaring miss had the visitors feeling sorry for their hosts as it was from the goal kick that the Rams handed the Dons their opening goal on a silver platter.

Passing it round at the back may work for some teams, but pumping it long may have been wiser against a team 4 divisions above you.

The defenders dithered on the ball, had their pockets picked and seconds later Jake Reeves, the Don’s captain, was stroking it to the left of the keeper to get the scoreboard moving. It was a cultured finish from Reeves, but he really shouldn’t have been handed such a glorious opportunity.

Despite the huge frustration this must have caused Ben Smith, Ramsgate’s manager, he could at least take a crumb of comfort from the fact that this disaster didn’t lead to an immediate deluge of goals for the hosts.

Tom Hadler, the Ram’s keeper, was probably very grateful it’s arrival was not imminent but more goals would come the host’s way soon enough.

Ramsgate continued to hold out against the swaggering hosts for a full 18 minutes after the opener before the Dons doubled their advantage. They even showed some attacking flair, with a lot of joy down the wings, but having failed to truly test Alex Bass, between the Don’s sticks, they were hit with the second punch.

Wimbledon’s second goal was no thing of beauty, but unlike their first it came from their own endeavours at least. Jack Currie carved out space for himself on the wing and then looped in a cross that swerved in the air and looked to be dipping under the bar.

Hadler did a great job of following it’s flight and clawed it out from under his own bar only to see it drop to the head of Ali Al-Hamadi 3 yards out, who needed no second invitation to nod it home.

The hosts now had their tails well and truly up and they peppered the away goal with shots, only Hadler’s excellent display kept them from being 3 or 4 up before half an hour had elapsed. Eventually though the pressure of their concerted attacks told and they were 3-0 up before half time.

The worst part about the host’s third for Ramsgate is that it came mere seconds after they wasted a glorious chance to get one back. Having survived the scare the Dons broke upfield at speed.

The ball was sprayed out to Al-Hamadi, who surged into the penalty area. He faced Hadler at the keeper’s near post but when the save was made the ball dropped to Josh Neufville, who slotted it home through a forest of legs from 8 yards out.

There were no changes to either team’s personnel at half time, so Don’s decided that they would just continue their utter domination of proceedings and it can’t have come as a shock to many within the ground when they were leading 5-0 less than 10 minutes after the restart.

It took less than 120 seconds of the half for Lemonheigh-Evans to atone for his first half miss by providing the Wombles with their 4th goal. A simple through ball reached him in the box, he turned his man and fired low across the keeper’s body. The shot lacked any true power on it but for once Hadler misjudged it’s path as it squirmed under his dive before nestling in the net behind him.

It took less than 5 minutes for the Don’s to reach 5 goals in the game, as Al-Hamadi completed his long-threatened brace. This one was the second that came from a defensive mistake from the visitors. This time an errant pass at the back landed at the feet of a player in blue. From there all it took was one pass to bypass the rest of the defence before Al-Hamadi could slide it home.

Having reached 5 goals against a team that were now clearly out for the count the Wombles were wombling so freely that they decided to spare their visitors any further scoresheet humiliation.

When Johnnie Jackson removed his brace man just after the hour mark it became abundantly clear that he wasn’t going to continue to risk his best player on the park any longer. He has a promotion push in the league to consider after all.

Despite seeing any hopes of their impressive cup run continuing and the tantalising prize of a home tie with Ipswich Town slipping speedily away the 1,400 travelling fans continued their raucous support all the way to the final whistle. They were even cheering all the way through an academic seven minutes of added time at the end of the 90.

Having been Rams to the slaughter in this one it is back to regular 8th-tier football for the part-timers from Kent, whilst the Wombles of Wimbledon Womble freely into the 3rd round.

In that 3rd round match, kicking off at lunchtime today, they will take on the Ramsgate role of massive underdogs.

As I travel on the tube Plough Lane all I’m hoping for is that I’m not heading to see some slaughtered Wombles.

I’ve been to every round of the FA Cup so far this season without witnessing an upset.

Today would be the perfect day to change that.