Chatham 3 Margate 3

[Jeff Trice]

Starting line-up was...

 

GK Charlie Mitten

RWB Greg Oates

LWB Hasim Deen

SWP Bill Edwards

CB Robin Trott

CB Daniel Damoah

MID Tom Ziepe

MID Lawrence Yiga

MID Ronayne Benjamin

ST Bertie Brayley

ST Danny Hockton

 

James Donovan came on for the injured Deen after about 20 mins and played pretty well at LWB.

 

Half time subs....

 

Bai Mass Lette Jallow for Oates

Ian Hilaire for Hockton

John Keister for Edwards

Kola Okikiolu for Trott

 

Benjamin went off with 15 to go and Greg came back on.

 

We went 1-0 up on 8 mins - a peach of a curling shot from Bertie from just outside the area. Danny made it 2-0 on 32 with a great strike into the top corner - a real rocket.

 

Chatham got one back on the stroke of half time with a deflected low long range shot - 2-1 at the break.

 

Chatham equalised a few minutes after the interval then Bertie cleverly looped a header in from a Donovan cross to make it 3-2 with 7 mins to go. Right at the death Chatham equalised with a quality strike into the top corner from the young winger who was impressive in the summer friendly.

 

Crowd was about 40, about half of them from Margate.

 

Just had a very quick look for info on Ronayne Benjamin and it seems he's an ex Gillingham and Chelsea youth player who's recently been at Wingate & Finchley and RKC Waalwijk of Holland - apparently his last match was against Ajax in front of 80,000 but can't find any evidence of that. Only had a very quick look though.

[Jeff Trice]

Bit more on Ronayne Benjamin - he was born 12.5.85 and joined RKC Waalwijk in January 2004 from Gillinghama. He was at Wingate & Finchley recently - played during February for them.

[Chris1]

Thanks for the info Jeff

[Cookie]

Ronayne Benjamin eh? Seems like my informant was correct in ex clubs and country but way way out with the name. Nothing like the Leroy Batchelor he gave me.Goodness knows where he got that from.As mentioned previously his information usually is very good but in the future I shall have to sit on it for that little longer before mentioning anything.Both surnames begin with "B" so it must be the same guy he was talking of.He just mis-heard the name I suppose.Sorry guys.

[michael]

How did Ziepe play ?

[michael]

AS Benjamin was at Chelski,i guess that was the Russian connection aswell.

[MIKE PERRY]

I was quite impressed with Ziepe. An attacking midfielder in the mould of Brayley (and looking very similar too!) Not afraid to take players on but distribution not great but definitely an improvement on Standen imo. Brayley a class above anything else but still too selfish at times. Should have had a hat-trick but their keeper made a great save towards the end then he missed another easier chance. Had Hockton stayed on I'm sure we would have won but CK had to make changes as it was a friendly and this upset the balance of the team which looked quite solid defensively in first half well marshalled by Trott who we badly missed in second half. Not impressed by the dutch guy. Not sure if he took himself off with an injury or because he was disappointed with his performance near the end causing a still far from fit Greg Oates to rejoin the fray. Damoah caught out defensively by their pacy forwards a number of times and Donovan seemed ill at ease in the left back position. Both their second half goals came from corners - our nemesis over recent seasons! Our goals were quality. As long as we can keep Yiga, Hockton, Brayley and Trott we can build a side aroung these guys as they are quality players.