Ramsgate have landed a top-class replacement for injured goalkeeper Tom Hadler.

Title-winning No.1 Hadler is facing months on the sidelines after suffering a serious knee injury.

He tore his ACL in Rams’ 4-0 win at Hythe on Good Friday, a result that clinched the Isthmian South East championship, and has since had an operation.

With Hadler out of action, Ramsgate have signed Aiden Prall from Sheppey.

Widely seen as one of the best keepers in the league, it was announced last week that Prall would be leaving Holm Park after three years with the Ites.

And his next destination is Isthmian Premier new boys Ramsgate.

“I always said to the chairman (James Lawson), if we ever didn’t have Tom, Aiden Prall would be the one I’d go for,” said Rams boss Ben Smith.

“He likes the way we play and we’ve been able to get him in.

“He’s been offered a lot of money to go elsewhere but he’s turned it down to come to us.

“I think it’s a really good signing.

“He’s a nice kid as well, which always helps.”

Ramsgate are working hard on other targets in light of recent departures.

Joe Ellul, Lee Martin and record goalscorer Joe Taylor have all moved on since the end of the season.

Smith says Ramsgate need to go in a different direction after losing the experienced trio.

“We’ve got some hard work to do to replace those,” said Smith.

“You can’t replace a Lee Martin, you can’t replace a Joe Taylor, you have to slightly change your approach.

“You’re not going to get the identical player.

“We’re not going to get a player that scores 50 goals.

“It’s very hard to replace that but what we have to do is find a player that can support more people contributing with goals and maybe adding in different areas.

“We’re hard at work doing that, we’ve identified some targets.

“We had them identified before the end of the season so it hasn’t really changed, it’s just a case of executing that.

“We’ve been meeting with players and we’re very close on quite a few.

“We’re excited. The core of our team will remain and it’s a case of building it on from there.

“It would be naive to think we’ll just go up and naturally do well because I think that league will be stronger next season.

“There were a lot of clubs last year who you could say effectively had a season off.

“Big clubs like Dulwich, you wouldn’t expect them to perform like they did with the players they had and the resources they had.

“I expect those big clubs to be at their best next year and that’s the mindset we have to have.

“We have to slightly adapt our style and maybe have more than one way of playing up our sleeve.

“Our philosophy is our philosophy, that’s never going to change.

“But having the ability to adapt within games to specific scenarios and specific playing styles we’re up against will be useful.

“We’re not talking about big changes, they are small tweaks and that’s something we’ve identified already and our pre-season is very much planned out to work on those small details.

“What we’ve got to do is try and get ahead of the curve.

“I’ve watched all the play-off games both in the league we’re in and the league we’re going into.

“I’ve watched an awful lot of footage of games between the top 10 in that league from last year.

“We’re being pro-active in planning what our style will be and what attributes the players we’re bringing in need to have and there are very specific attributes we’re looking at.”

Taylor joined National League South Hornchurch at the end of last week after scoring 101 goals in two seasons at Ramsgate.

At 34, the striker felt it was now or never to prove himself at Step 2.

Smith paid tribute to the man who captained Ramsgate to title glory.

“We’ve always had an unbelievable connection,” he said.

“He’s got a great opportunity to go in the National South.

“It’s the end of the era. He did what he came to do and I can’t speak highly enough of him.

“He’s looked after the club, he’s repaid all the faith the club had in him, and the club have looked after him.

“It’s been a match made it heaven, the three of us, me, Joe and James.

“We had a vision and a target of what we were going to achieve together and we’ve done that.

“Joe Taylor is firmly a legend at the football club and in non-league in this area and I’m just pleased we had that level of success together because it was very much built on a relationship of trust and support for each other.

“He wouldn’t have been an obvious choice as a captain for a lot of people but, for me, he did an awful lot behind the scenes that you’d want from a captain, so I was really pleased with everything I got out of JT.

“His highest goalscoring seasons in his career were with me and I’m really proud of that.

“I’m just delighted he’s got a move where he can maybe prove some doubters wrong.

“He’s had some spells in the National South, just here and there, and I think he can be successful at that level.

“I look forward to seeing his progress and supporting him with that.

“I’ve got zero doubt that he will score goals at that level.

“It wouldn’t surprise me if we’re here again this time next year talking about how many goals JT’s scored.”