Catch up on all the latest sport in Kent with Bartholomew Hall. This Monday, we look back at Ramsgate's historic FA Cup win bagging themselves a space in the second round for the first time.
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00:00 Hello and welcome along to Invicta Sport, the only show on your TV dedicated to wrapping
00:19 up all of Kent's sporting action. I'm Bartholomew Hall and here's what to expect on this Monday,
00:24 the 6th of November.
00:26 Cup fever. Kent's non-league stars shine in the FA Cup first round spotlight.
00:32 Ram raid. Ben Smith says history-making as Ramsgate has nothing to fear in round two.
00:38 Plus Premier League fever. Maidstone Charity set to host youth tournament at the home of
00:43 West Ham.
00:46 But first, a round-up of the headlines before we get to those. And the Invicta Dynamos paid
00:50 tribute on Saturday to the late Adam Johnson, who tragically lost his life whilst playing
00:55 for the Nottingham Panthers in October.
00:58 The Moes invited fans at Planet Ice in Gillingham on Sunday as they took on the Slough Jets
01:03 to take part in a one-minute applause in the 47th minute, which coincides with Adam Johnson's
01:08 jersey number. It follows a minute's silence at the start of the game, where players from
01:12 both sides formed a circle in the middle of the rink and flowers were laid. Invicta went
01:16 on to win the Southern Cup game 8-6.
01:21 Sittingbourne FC is appealing for help after parts of its stadium structure was damaged
01:26 beyond repair by Storm Kieran. The club has launched a fundraising page to replace what
01:31 is known as Blakey's Shed at the Woodstock Stadium. The shed end has been keeping diehard
01:36 Brookies fans dry for the last 10 years, but has now been temporarily replaced thanks to
01:41 a local scaffolding firm. It comes after the club has had to pay for a new boiler at the
01:45 Woodstock, which is already set to cost them up to £6,000. So far the club has raised
01:50 just under £1,500 for the damaged stand.
01:54 Now let's take a look at the football results, including four terrific FA Cup first round
01:59 fixtures, with some fantastic results for some of Kent's sides. Including the chance
02:03 for It's Me and South East Side Ramsgate to make club history as they took on National
02:07 League side Woking. Here's Shea Rogers with your football round-up.
02:11 In what was the biggest day in Ramsgate Football Club's history, the lowest ranked team in
02:15 the FA Cup were faced with opposition 62 places above them in the footballing order of merit,
02:20 with an emphatic second round tie awaiting the winner.
02:23 The game didn't quite start on the front foot for the Rams, who found themselves trailing
02:26 after just 15 minutes, courtesy of Denon Lewis, who calmly slotted past Tom Hadler to hand
02:31 Woking the lead. It was fear not for the Rams though, as on the stroke of half-time, TJ Jadama
02:36 squeezed the volley from a long ball past Will Jaskolainen to send both sides into half-time
02:41 with all on his even.
02:42 An attacking start to the second half saw action at both ends, before Ramsgate saw a
02:46 goal ruled out for offside from a corner, but with their next opportunity, Lee Martin
02:50 placed a training ground set-piece into the bottom corner to hand Ramsgate the lead with
02:54 just 15 minutes to go.
02:56 Pressure piled on and Tom Hadler was forced into some smart stops, but ultimately Woking
03:00 came up short and Ramsgate found themselves enjoying another historic occasion.
03:05 The reward is a second round tie away to AFC Wimbledon, which is to be played between the
03:08 1st and 4th of December. Just how far can they progress in the competition?
03:13 That wasn't the only FA Cup action of the weekend, as the highest ranked Kent side,
03:17 Dullingham, secured a 2-0 win for new manager Stephen Clemens. They faced a heretical side
03:22 stuck in the middle of the National League North table, and wound up walking away with
03:25 a clean sheet in a second round match-up against Cholten Athletic or Cray Valley.
03:30 Maidstone United were the third and final Kent side to progress in the second round
03:33 after overcoming Cheshire United 2-0, leaving them with a second round tie at home to Barrow.
03:39 It was heartbreak for Sheppey United, who wound up as 4-1 losers against Walsall, signifying
03:43 the end of their magnificent run in the competition.
03:46 In the National League, Dover Athletic were lucky to play after ground staff had to work
03:49 relentlessly to prepare a wet pitch for their 1-0 loss to Hampton and Richmond, while Tunbridge
03:54 Angels played out a 1-1 draw against Chelmsford.
03:57 The results leave both Dover and Tunbridge in the bottom half of the table, and this
04:00 is what Angels manager Jay Saunders had to say after the game.
04:03 "Great point. When you play, I don't know, it was 80, probably the best part of 80 minutes
04:09 with 10 men against a side who are one of the fancy sides. I think it's a good point.
04:15 Obviously, am I disappointed in how the game turned out? Yeah, but it's a great point.
04:20 I thought defensively it was very good."
04:22 Only two sides played in the Italian Premier, as Chatham Town saw their away game to Canby
04:26 Island postponed, as Margate secured a 2-0 home win against Lewes, and Folkestone and
04:31 Victor fell to a 3-1 loss against Carshalton Athletic.
04:34 Chatham remain in an impressive second, while Margate and Folkestone stay just on the outside
04:39 of the top half of the table.
04:41 And that's all for your football round-up of this weekend's action.
04:45 And of course, following that round of results, with Sheppey bowing out of the competition
04:49 and our very own Ramsgate, which has now become the lowest ranked club in the competition.
04:54 And on Sunday, it found out that it will be facing AFC Wimbledon League 2 side in round
04:59 2. I caught up with manager Ben Smith earlier today to get his reaction on the draw, and
05:04 to find out a bit more about what this weekend meant to him.
05:08 So I'm joined by Ben Smith, now manager of Ramsgate FC. Ben, thank you very much for
05:13 joining us. I think we've all seen the clips from Saturday's win, both celebrating on the
05:18 pitch and back in the dressing room. Can you just kind of put into words what this win
05:22 means for you and the team?
05:24 I think on Match of the Day, they said it was a once in a decade opportunity. And I
05:31 think they've actually underplayed it there. 25 years since the first round was in Fannett,
05:37 it just means everything to the local community. To have that moment and to leave that legacy
05:44 is kind of what you get involved in football for. So to share that so early in my tenure
05:51 as manager at Ramsgate with the supporters and staff and the local community, it's just
05:56 been fantastic.
05:57 Absolutely, and quite an emotional time for many as well. Am I right in saying you might
06:01 have shed a tear after the final whistle?
06:04 Yeah, I'd say my phone blew up after the final whistle. It was crazy. It was pitch invasions
06:15 and just getting hugged by everyone and then seeing your nearest and dearest there at the
06:21 grounds. It was quite emotional.
06:24 Absolutely. But let's talk a bit about the game itself then. So at half-time, it's 1-1,
06:30 a brilliant start to the game. Can you give us a bit of an indication of what you might
06:33 have said to the boys at half-time?
06:34 I felt that we'd played ourselves into the game. The first 15 minutes, I think you could
06:43 see the players were adjusting to the level that we were up against. Normally, at the
06:49 level we play at, the players certainly midfield would have an extra two or three touches than
06:55 they could get away with in this game. I think after a period of adjustment in that first
07:00 10-15 minutes, I think we really got to grips with the game. Then after the goal, you could
07:07 see that there were real chinks in their armour. I think we really highlighted their weaknesses.
07:14 At half-time, it was all positive. We asked for a certain style of play in order to really
07:24 deal with their weaknesses and highlight them a little bit more. I thought we could get
07:28 a joy. In the end, we scored a goal off the training pitch, which was fantastic. It's
07:35 always nice when that happens. Then we've had quite a few chances on the break, a goal
07:40 disallowed. The second half played out exactly how we wanted it to, which was great.
07:48 Absolutely, exactly how you wanted it to. Lee Martin and TJ Jadam are getting the two
07:52 goals there. I think another player to highlight really is your man between the posts as well.
07:57 He got some good saves, especially in the last few minutes.
08:00 Tom Hadler, we brought him in from the High League. He's at Maidstone, won the Conference
08:07 South with them, he's played the Conference National. They've got a football league experience
08:10 with Gillingham. He's actually an ex-student of mine. When I was on teaching placement
08:16 way back at the start of my career, some 14-15 years ago, Tom was there. He was in the football
08:23 team, the school football team that I was involved with. To go full circle and have
08:27 Tom with us now, passing his experience on to the younger people at the club and putting
08:33 in performances like that, just shows the level of quality that he has and shows how
08:39 well we've done at Ramsgate to bring in such experienced players that are still able to
08:45 put in those type of performances.
08:47 Brilliant stuff. I think I wanted to ask about you yourself. You joined the team earlier
08:51 this year in May. It's been quite a good start to your tenure as manager of this club. Even
08:56 in the league, sitting sixth at the moment, just six games played, but five wins from
09:01 that. It's quite a good start.
09:03 Yes, fantastic start. When you consider that we've kept two players from last year's squad,
09:11 it was a gamble, but it was a brave move to get rid of that many players. The supporters
09:19 had already built rapport with those players that had been there for some years. Sometimes
09:24 it's nice to have a clean break and start anew. I think this cup competition and the
09:31 FA Trophy, we had 12 cup games in a row at one stage, that's given us a real opportunity
09:37 to lay the foundations, put the seeds into what we think we can become as a side. We've
09:46 got a long way to go, but moments like Saturday, they're only going to bring the group closer
09:52 and help us towards our aims of promotion.
09:57 Of course. Now, just before we wrap up, Wimbledon drawn yesterday. What was the reaction from
10:02 the team? I think many people wanted to see another home game, get 3,000 more people down
10:07 to the stadium in Ramsgate, but it's been drawn away. What's your reaction to that?
10:12 I've been looking for an away tie. A big club away, we've got a League Two club, hopefully
10:20 the TV gives us the credit we're due and we get the TV rights for the game, one of the
10:28 terrestrial TV programmes. It'll be a fantastic day. AFC Wimbledon, it's in London, it's close
10:35 enough for us to get a lot of support there. Hopefully, it'll be another magical day. We've
10:43 taken this one game at a time. We were underdogs against Woking, I said we had a 20% chance
10:48 against Woking. We've probably got a 10% chance now against AFC Wimbledon. But we go there
10:55 with nothing to fear. The supporters will have a great day, no matter what happens.
11:01 Let's see. I asked the boys in the first qualifying game we had to show the supporters some magic
11:10 at the FA Cup. At the moment, we're daring to dream.
11:14 Absolutely. I think one thing's for certain is that the supporters will be 100% behind
11:18 you. Ben, very best of luck.
11:21 And of course, that Wimbledon game and the rest of Kent's FA Cup second-round ties are
11:25 to be played on the weekend of 2-4 December. And just in case you were wondering, here's
11:30 the rest of Kent's sides in the Cup. Just three remaining now, four if you include Crave
11:34 Valley, who do fall under the Kent FA. Gillingham will take on the winner of Crave Valley's
11:38 replay against Charlton, which will be on the 14. And Maidstone United will be home
11:42 to Barrow after four Cup rounds away.
11:46 Now we've reached half-time, which means it's time for a break. Plenty more Invicta
11:50 sport coming just after this break.
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15:08 Hello and welcome back to Invicta Sport live on KMTV. Now it's time to meet our next guest
15:14 on Invicta this evening. Maidstone-based charity, the Street Soccer Foundation, was set up with
15:18 the aim of improving the lives of vulnerable and homeless young people from across the
15:23 county and the rest of the country as well, for that matter. With workshops and programmes
15:27 set up for young men and women aged 17 to 25, the Foundation is preparing now for a
15:32 five-a-side tournament set to be hosted at the London Stadium, of course, home to West
15:37 Ham United. Now I'm very happy to say that I'm joined by Keith Mabbott, former Gillingham
15:42 player and CEO and founder of the Street Soccer Foundation. Thank you very much for joining
15:47 us and welcome to Invicta Sport. Now first of all, let's just scroll back. Before we
15:51 talk about the tournament you've got coming up, can you just tell us how it all came about,
15:56 the Street Soccer Foundation? Yes, so it was in the summer of 2015. I'd actually just got
16:02 back from a worldwide tour of my lovely wife and it was her first holiday in about a decade.
16:08 But there was a radio interview that came on and started talking about homelessness
16:12 and then went on to youth homelessness. And it was one of them weird moments that I just
16:16 sort of locked into it and just thought I was really sort of upset to hear about the
16:21 situation and didn't really realise it was going on. As I say, this was in the summer
16:24 of 2015 and I had been a former player. I was at Millwall, Gillingham and Chalton, my
16:29 three clubs. And I just know how powerful football is to break down barriers and unite
16:34 communities. And there and then I sketched out the idea for Street Soccer and I picked
16:39 up the phone to the PFA, Professional Football Association, and just said look I've got an
16:43 idea to set up a project. I want to try and help those that are currently homeless and
16:48 suffering from homelessness through the power of football. I'd love to come and see you.
16:52 So I went and had a meeting in London at the PFA and it was proper heart on the sleeve
16:56 stuff. I just said I want a club to ultimately take the project into the community and see
17:01 what we can achieve. And it was born with a partnership at the time. The very first
17:07 club that we bought on was West Ham United. So it's nice actually in one way, obviously
17:11 what you've just introduced that we're going back to the London Stadium now. But that's
17:14 where it began.
17:15 No, absolutely. And you must have met so many young people with so many different sort of
17:19 incredible stories over your time. What have you kind of learnt from the link between sport
17:24 and football and helping people kind of change their lives around?
17:28 I think the fact that our strapline is changing lives through football always sort of drives
17:33 a conversation. And often it's a case of well how can that even be achieved? How can you
17:37 change a life through football? But football serves, I mean it's the global number one
17:41 sport and it serves as such an amazing powerful catalyst for change because it's what first
17:46 attracts people into a programme, prevention piece. And our academy is now nationwide across
17:52 the country. It's our nationally acclaimed programme. And the number of young people
17:56 that we've been able to attract onto the course through the sport because that's what gets
18:01 them through the door in the first place. They want to kick about. They're in a difficult
18:04 situation typically, challenging circumstances, unfortunate backgrounds sometimes and ultimately
18:12 a low sort of place. And so football is a kind of release for them. So whether they
18:17 play it or they watch it, whatever, that sort of draws them to us in the first place. And
18:21 once we have them, that's where we start triggering a bit of magic because fundamentally the charity
18:26 that I've set up, Street Soccer Foundation, is all about mindset coaching. So it runs
18:30 personal development provision up and down the country from now actually from five years
18:34 upwards. So we've got all manner of provision now having built it out since 2015. But it
18:40 is that football first of all gives people the confidence and then we kind of fuse that
18:45 with the workshops that we run. So those discussions in the classroom if you like, in the workshop,
18:51 you know, is brought to life on the pitch ultimately.
18:53 No, absolutely. It's incredible work that you do. Now let's talk about the reason why
18:58 you're here today. You've got this tournament set up at the London Stadium. How did that
19:01 all come about?
19:05 It's a pretty wacky one, I'll be honest with you. Brief context is that at the beginning
19:10 of this year, I'll try and whistle through, at the beginning of this year we were given
19:15 the incredible privilege to be endorsed by the Commonwealth as a foundation. So the only
19:20 UK charity to be endorsed to run and deliver on a football for good message globally. So
19:26 it was an incredible privilege, unbelievable opportunity and I grabbed it with both hands.
19:31 Having presented this football for good agenda to the Commonwealth and then having it endorsed
19:35 and approved and securing that partnership, we then kind of set the ball rolling, thought
19:39 I'd better phrase that, forgive the pun, but over the course of the year this year we've
19:44 been thinking about where could we stage such an iconic kind of end of year event. And there
19:50 was all manner of reasons for it. So the charity first of all, like I mentioned earlier, the
19:54 very first club partner was West Ham United and the foundation, the Secretary General
20:00 of the Commonwealth, Patricia Scotland, she grew up in East London. With the first time
20:06 we appeared on Match of the Day, it was through the West Ham partnership, they've been an
20:09 ever present with us. They run our Street Soccer Academy programme, they have done since
20:13 2015. And it just made a lot of sense and if we could get the stadium. So I basically
20:19 got a meeting with the CEO and sat down with him and if he watches this, I'm sure he won't
20:25 mind me saying, but he's never given the stadium away in the sense of backing any kind of charitable
20:31 endeavour. But thankfully my presentation was strong enough, I kind of just didn't agree
20:37 to leave until he said yes. So thankfully Graham, and Graham if you are watching, thank
20:43 you so much genuinely from the heart. He gave us the opportunity to host it at the London
20:47 Stadium.
20:48 Also what a great opportunity as well for these youngsters who get to play at not just
20:52 West Ham Stadium, Premier League spot week in week out, but also where the London Olympics
20:56 was as well.
20:57 That's exactly it. I thought, I mean with respect to any of the clubs across the pyramid,
21:02 but it's the Olympic Park, it's the Olympic Stadium like you say. It's such an iconic
21:07 venue, the surrounding of it, if you get in there into the bowl as it were. But exactly
21:12 what you just said, I just know that the young people on our academy programme all up and
21:17 down the country, when they arrive to the London Stadium, particularly if they've never
21:20 been to the stadium before, it's going to create such an incredible wow factor and it
21:24 will be guaranteed lifetime memories for all that's involved.
21:27 So I'm so excited, I mean it's in two weeks time, so a lot of planning has gone into this,
21:33 but now we're in the position, thankfully, fingers crossed that we're kind of there with
21:37 it. We've got a recce this Friday and then obviously the big day on the Sunday the 19th.
21:41 Fantastic. Now I couldn't not ask you, you've come along, you're a former Gillingham player,
21:46 we've been talking about them a lot over the past four weeks, manager change, now they've
21:49 got a new head coach. Do you keep tabs on your former clubs?
21:52 Yeah, I do, of course I do. I've been in touch actually recently with the new owners and
21:58 I do know of Stephen Clements, he won't probably remember me because I'm much younger. I do,
22:05 I mean Mill, Gillingham and Chiltern, I always look out for their results and funnily enough
22:08 I went to the duels for the first time in a little while actually, I was invited down
22:12 to Priestfield and saw the Southampton game, the cup game that they won, which was lovely.
22:17 It was really nice to be back in Priestfield, it was a bit weird I'll be honest with you
22:20 because it had been such a long time. But I'm really, really keen to work with the club,
22:25 I've opened up to the Gallington family and said in terms of the community work that we
22:29 do it would be fantastic to get going again with Gillingham because we had a partnership
22:33 with Gillingham before but obviously there's been a bit of a transition and everything
22:36 else but now going forward I think both sides are really keen to see if we can do some magical
22:41 work in the community because it's really important. There's a lot of family and kids
22:45 that need a bit of support and help and particularly going in towards Christmas, I think with a
22:49 living crisis and everything else, I think the club do incredible work and they're really
22:54 keen to give back and support the fan base and I know that so it will be a privilege
22:58 to work back again with the club.
22:59 Alright, Keith, thank you very much for coming in today, we'll follow the story as it goes
23:03 and hopefully we'll be down there as well.
23:04 Awesome, thank you very much.
23:05 Thank you very much for coming in today.
23:07 Now just before we head off this evening, don't forget you can stay up to date with
23:11 all our sport features and reports here on KMTV by heading to our website, just go to
23:16 KMTV.co.uk, click on sport and there you can watch more of our interviews, news and stories
23:22 like this one about a swimming club in Eden Bridge which has returned to the water after
23:26 a leisure centre closure left them on the brink of shutting for good.
23:30 What do swimmers do without their pool? This was the struggle facing the Eden Bridge Piranhas,
23:36 a swimming club in the east of the county, after their firm forced the shutting down
23:40 of their leisure centre after the company went into liquidation.
23:45 After using the pool for 30 years, it came as quite a shock to the Piranhas when they
23:49 were left in the dark, practically overnight, with little knowledge of how long the pool
23:53 would be closed.
23:55 This meant that while it was, they had to improvise, looking for pools elsewhere they
23:59 could travel to each week, putting some strain on their ability to plan sessions.
24:04 Thankfully, the centre was bought out by a new management provider and the team were
24:08 able to start practising again. I spoke to their head coach to see how the club was managing
24:13 after the struggle of not having a pool for so long.
24:16 Yeah, when the pool was shut, everybody was basically devastated and wondering what was
24:21 going to happen. We're only a small club compared to others, we only swim at this venue, but
24:27 a lot of clubs swim elsewhere. So, it was great once we got the news that Active Leisure
24:33 were going to be taking over, well everyone at Active, shall I say, were going to be taking
24:37 over, and we could get back in the pool and they could start training again. Everyone
24:41 was really pleased with that.
24:44 Now that the swimmers are back, they're keen to show off their exercises, such as practising
24:49 their dives, which would give them an advantage off the mark in competitions, as well as the
24:53 cup exercise, where they balance a cup with some water inside on their foreheads. This
24:58 strengthens their neck and makes sure they are keeping their head far enough above the
25:02 water during backstrokes.
25:04 The club is also home to two members of the Kent Swim England Development Squad, which
25:08 is an association to give young swimmers a pathway to representing England in certain
25:13 aquatic disciplines.
25:15 The scheme is open to 51 clubs that practise a variety of sports, including diving, open
25:21 water swimming, para swimming, synchronised swimming and water polo. Eden Bridge Piranhas
25:26 is one such club, and after winning the Kent Junior League Sea Cup earlier this year, the
25:31 club are ecstatic to have their facilities back. I spoke to the Piranhas development
25:35 swimmers themselves about their beloved club and the aspirations they had for the future.
25:40 Do you have any aspirations to swim professionally one day?
25:43 Yes, I would like to do that, but I would also like to get a job and do other stuff
25:49 like that.
25:50 How did it feel when you heard that the pool would be able to be used again?
25:53 I was very, very excited, because I hadn't been in the pool for so long.
25:58 It felt amazing. I was so happy that we could train again and see all my friends again.
26:02 Also, knowing that you can go back to training towards your goals is really motivational.
26:09 Not only is swimming a good sport for health, fitness and competitions, it's also good for
26:13 safety, with the Piranhas swimming several times over the week and becoming stronger
26:18 swimmers every session.
26:19 Looking at the Eden Bridge Piranhas now, you would not believe that in March they had nowhere
26:23 to practice. Now it seems to the parents and to the swimmers that it was all water under
26:29 the bridge.
26:30 Finn McDermott for KMTV.
26:33 Well that is full time on today's episode of Invicta Sport. If you want more from KMTV
26:36 you can watch all of our other programmes, the Kent Politics Show, Made in Kent, Kent
26:40 on Climate and the Kent Film Club by heading to kmtv.co.uk.
26:44 Right after the break there's a new episode of Generation Y, but for now, I'll see you
26:47 later.
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