It has been decided that between us, the staff and the players, we will be refunding all away supporters that attended the match at Enfield as an apology for the lack of quality and desire shown, says Ramsgate boss Matt Longhurst

RAMSGATE manager Matt Longhurst says the club will reimburse the fans who travelled to watch their unacceptable performance at Enfield Town on Saturday.

The Rams suffered a humiliating 8-1 defeat at the Isthmian League Premier Division side in The FA Trophy Third Qualifying Round, which was their worst result in the competition.

Ramsgate's worst showing previously in The FA Trophy came in the Preliminary Round when Needham Market came away from Southwood Stadium with a 7-2 win in 2011.

“As manager of Ramsgate Football Club, Saturday was a very disappointing and unacceptable result. As a group we must take collective responsibility and I am at the top of that, as manager,” said Longhurst in a statement on the club website.

“It has been decided that between us, the staff and the players, we will be refunding all away supporters that attended the match as an apology for the lack of quality and desire shown.

“We have an incredibly young group of players now. Without the senior players, that are missing, games like the one of Enfield have come too soon for the squad. Three matches in eight days saw two good results, and performances, followed by a disaster for the third.

“At Enfield we lost Jake McIntyre to injury in the warm-up. As a result, any chance to the shape of the team during the game was taken away from us.

“I’ve not known an injury list like it, we have a very competitive squad of players for the level we are at but we just haven’t been able to pick our strongest team, or squad, once.

“I am frustrated, of course, but with this new lockdown set to affect football it looks like we will not return to action for four weeks. By this time, we would hope our injuries would have cleared up and we can then get going with a full squad to choose from.

“Now there are much bigger issues than Saturday in people’s minds, but we must still recognise that it wasn’t acceptable. We must apologise to supporters that attended the game and move on.

“With an average start to the season having coped with such extensive injuries and given lots of young players game time Saturday was just one step too far. We must now look forward to the restart and what it brings.

“Those supporters who travelled are invited to make themselves known at the next home game to arrange the refund.”

Ramsgate go into the second Covid-19 Lockdown on Thursday sitting in ninth-place in the Isthmian League South East Division table with seven points on the board from their opening six league games.

Visit Ramsgate’s website: www.ramsgate-fc.co.uk