Ramsgate manager Ben Smith highlights the vital role his backroom staff have played in their unbeaten start to the season

Manager Ben Smith has praised the work of his backroom team as Ramsgate leave no stone unturned in their quest for Isthmian South East promotion.

Rams maintained their unbeaten start with goals from Joe Taylor, Alfie Paxman, Josh Ajayi and Roarie Deacon in a 4-1 home victory over Steyning Town on Saturday.

It was a 12th win in 13 league matches for Smith’s second-placed side, who visit Herne Bay tonight (7.45pm).

Smith draws on extensive analytical work from his management team to give Ramsgate an edge, helped by a partnership with the University of Kent, while he even has access to match footage in the dugout.

The numbers being fed back to Smith confirm how hard Rams are working in games, as highlighted by their 3-2 win at Ashford on Tuesday last week.

“We had eight players that ran over 11km, so the work rate in the group on a Tuesday night, when you normally have a 5-10% drop-off in those stats, was immense,” said Smith.

“I get the stats at full-time of every game.

“We have a partnership with the University of Kent, so we have statistical analysis, areas of the pitch we enter, we have that at half-time and full-time for each game.

“We clip up certain areas, things we want to do, so we do an analysis of that with the video footage.

“We’re trying to leave no stone unturned in that sense.

“There’s probably other clubs who are doing it at our level - we’re not reinventing the wheel - but the players can’t complain that they’ve not been well-prepped.

“I think the team behind me need a lot of praise for that.

“Sean Hill, Darren Beale and Joe Rowland, they do an awful lot of that work, and we’ve also got the University of Kent working with us.

“We’ve got a uni student, Oliver Pledge, who’s doing a lot of work on our stats,