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Team result came before personal glory for Tonbridge winger Adem Ramadan in the Bostik Premier play-off semi-final.
Ramadan capped an outstanding first-half display on Thursday night with the opening goal in Angels’ 2-1 win at Haringey Borough.
“Forget my goal, we managed to win,” said Ramadan. “The goal is a goal, but the fact is that we’ve come away from home and got the win.
“I thought I’d whip it and see if I could find the top corner. They gave me too much room, I’ve seen an opening and it was one of my better strikes.
“I thought (the one before) was going in. I wanted to get it on my left and I curled it but luckily I managed to score just after.”
The slick 3G playing surface certainly seemed to suit Ramadan – but that’s not always been the case for the nippy winger who has struggled on artificial pitches previously.
“I’ve never liked playing on 3G because it’s normally a hard surface and I’ve had a couple of operations on my groins,” explained Ramadan. “But it suited me on Thursday night! I’m not going to complain about that.
“In the league I scored against Haringey as well so I quite enjoy playing against them.”
Ramadan admitted Tonbridge’s travelling supporters played a big part in the success – and he felt the better team on the night went through.
“They had a lot of fans who made a lot of noise but our supporters really got behind us, they were our 12th man and really pushed us over the line,” said Ramadan, who was forced off with cramp late on.
“The whole team worked hard. We knew where the threat came from in their No.11, and we kept him as quiet as possible.
“The gaffer regrouped us at half-time. We didn’t get much of the ball in the second half but we managed to hold on.
“I thought it was a soft penalty so I felt we got what we deserved as we were the better team for me.”
Those fans will be key again on Monday when Tonbridge host Merstham at Longmead in the Bostik Premier play-off.
The winners of that tie will then go into a super play-off game to decide who gets promoted to National League South.
“We fancy anyone, home or away, but it’s better for the fans to have a home tie,” explained Ramadan.
“They deserve a bit of glory after sticking with us through that sticky spell we had in November and December.
“Home advantage, a home win, and hopefully we’ll be through to the super final – but we can only look at one game at a time.
“The fans have been second to none, their singing and making noise. Home advantage is always going to be a positive.
“The confidence is there, we’ve had some injuries but we’re too good not to succeed if we turn up. We’re training on Saturday and then we’ll go again on Monday.”
