FA Cup visits Thanet school ahead of Ramsgate's 2nd round tie

KentOnline / KMTV

School pupils at the Hartsdown Academy in Margate were treated to a very special visit from the cup itself, ahead of Ramsgate's first ever FA Cup Round 2 match.

Transcript

00:00 The FA Cup, 6.3kg of silver, wrapped in tons of football history and previously held by

00:08 some of the sport's greatest.

00:11 Seen here held by former Medway school boy Chris Smalling when he won with Manchester

00:15 United in 2016.

00:18 Ahead of Ramsgate FC's first ever foray into the second round of the competition, the Cup

00:23 itself has been on tour, stopping here today at Hartsdown Academy, which just so happens

00:29 to be the workplace of Rams manager and school deputy head Ben Smith.

00:34 "I think it breeds belief and confidence, you know, that local people can have success.

00:41 If I go back to the game against Woking, one of the goal scorers was TJ Jadama, ex-student

00:50 of Hartsdown Academy.

00:51 So it's nice to show students that actually this is an ex-student here and hopefully they

00:59 can be the next TJ and not only a fantastic player but a fantastic role model for the

01:05 work he does in the local community, his coaching.

01:08 So it's great to show what our alumni can achieve."

01:12 "It feels surreal coming back to the old school where it all started and speaking to

01:17 the teachers, seeing some of them here.

01:19 We used to talk about the FA Cup loads in school, so it feels good to bring it back

01:24 here and have it for the community.

01:26 So I know a lot of the kids that go to this school and way back when I was here I didn't

01:30 think I'd be at this point but obviously we've worked hard to get where we are and hopefully

01:36 for them and for some of our family we get to the next round and get through."

01:40 And with a capacity away crowd set to travel to Wimbledon this Monday, many of these youngsters

01:45 will be left to watch the game live on TV.

01:48 "I think it's brilliant how far they've come and how much further they can go.

01:53 You can look up to them and use them as a role model."

01:55 "I've had about three and a half thousand people ask me for tickets so yeah, there's

02:00 been massive response from all the fans.

02:06 It's just the pubs, all the local pubs are showing it live, there's so many people interested

02:13 in it.

02:14 It's just everywhere in the local area, even outside the local area everyone's talking

02:17 about it."

02:18 "You can't get physically much closer to the Cup than this but in terms of football,

02:23 Ramsgate have never been this close either.

02:25 If they beat Wimbledon on Monday, well, they'll be even one more step closer to the FA Cup."

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