Ramsgate Football Club are the lowest-ranked team left in this year's FA Cup.
They are one step away from reaching the 3rd round for the first time in their history but in their way are one of the most famous giant killers in the history of the competition, AFC Wimbledon, who under their previous guise beat Liverpool 1-0 in the Cup final back in 1988 against all the odds.
Ramsgate have sold out their allocation of 1500 tickets and 20 coach loads of Rams will be packing out the away end in South West London!
The Rams play at level 8 of the football pyramid in the Isthmian League South East Division and currently sit a the the top of the division winning 10 of 12 games and with only one loss so far this season.
They have won six games on their Cup journey, including an impressive 2-1 victory over Woking of the National League in the 1st round.
Ramsgate FC is one of the largest non-League clubs in Kent, and last season fielded 78 senior and youth teams, and for 2023/24 again includes 3 for women and 10 for girls as well as 2 senior men’s teams comprising the 1st Team and Under 23s.
The current club restarted in 1945 after the ban on football in east Kent during World War 2 was lifted, and originally called Ramsgate Athletic have played at the Southwood Stadium continuously ever since.
The Southwood Stadium now has a capacity of 3,500 but the largest crowd registered at the ground was 5,038 for the visit of local rivals Margate in 1955.
They made Club history when they reached the 1st Round Proper of the FA Cup for the first time in 1955, narrowly losing 5-3 at Watford (a record that stood for 50 years before reaching that round again).
This fantastic picture below (credited to Peter Griffiths) was of his 17-year-old Dad (front right) working on the 1955 Cup special steam train vs Watford!
In tradition with the FA Cup Ramsgate FC have also had an FA Cup song made for them with the “Our Road to Wimbledon FA Cup song” performed by Luke J Dorman and the SuperMicks called “Ramsgate Are Massive”
The album is now available to download here;
All money raised will go to the Brooklyn Bain fundraiser for Ramsgate youngster Brooklyn who was diagnosed with a brain tumour called Diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma which is sadly a very aggressive type of incurable childhood cancer.
Details can be found here;
We wish Ramsgate FC and all their fans the best for the game and fingers crossed the magic of the greatest Cup competition in world football shines down on them tonight with a 3rd round home tie against Championship high flyers Ipswich Town waiting in the wings.
Let's hope for a repeat of these scenes from the round before!