DOVER Athletic manager Andy Hessenthaler completed a triple ‘Ramsraid’ this week by signing three players from Ramsgate.

Centre-half Olly Schulz, versatile defender Dean Hill and winger Sam Jones have all decided to up sticks from Southwood and jump on board the Hess Express for next season’s Ryman Premier League campaign, which should make two matches between the sides interesting to say the least, especially as two other Whites’ players, Laurence Ball and Shaun Welford, have Rams’ connections.

Ramsgate boss Jim Ward has been doing his best to put a gloss on the loss of Schulz and Co, saying on the Rams’ official website that "...everybody has got a sell-by date, and sometimes they stay at a club for too long," but it must be galling to lose three players in one foul swoop to one of your local rivals.

Hess admitted: "I don’t suppose I am flavour of the month in Ramsgate, but Jim Ward has been in football a long time and he knows the score. The boot could quite easily have been on the other foot, and I don’t think Jim would have worried about it."