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, and we’ve introduced footage in the dugout, with a delay, so let’s just say there’s a penalty, we can view it back 15 seconds later.

“We’re trying to push whatever we can do to the limits and the club have embraced that.

“Some of that stuff does cost money but it’s not astronomical money, it’s just time, it’s getting the scaffolding tower up to film, it’s getting someone that can film every game.

“You look at our highlights packages and the standard is incredible.

“We’re filming in 4k but, again, that’s not a case of ‘Ramsgate can afford this and that’, it’s a volunteer doing it. I’m sure most clubs could get a volunteer.”

Rams have every right to be excited by their start to the season but Smith has his business head on.

It’s one game at a time for the manager, whose side visit Sevenoaks this Saturday (3pm).

That’s followed by a trip to East Grinstead on Tuesday (7.45pm).

“Normally, at most clubs, you’d be over the moon and singing from the rooftops about our form,” said Smith.

“But we’ve created a level of expectation where this is the norm for us, so we’re not getting carried away, we just move on to the next game and block out what’s gone before.

“Winning becomes a habit and you want to keep hold of it for as long as possible, so there’s no point crowing over what’s gone on in the last few games.

“It’s about focusing on the next game and, to be fair, I think the management team we’ve got are good at that.

“I did say to myself if I got involved again after the summer I’d try and enjoy the moment more but I guess you’ve just got to crack on and do what you’re here for.

“The good thing is no one’s talking about us at the moment. Everyone seems to be talking about Beckenham and Sittingbourne, which is quite nice for us.

“We can just go about our business quietly for once.

“A lot’s been said from other teams when they play us about having players missing but we’ve had our own injury crisis, I guess, that we’ve been dealing with.

“We have a strong squad, not in terms of numbers, but we’ve signed players who are very versatile, so that’s like having an extra player.”

Ramsgate handed a debut to 16-year-old academy player Seth Brock at the weekend.

Their squad was dominated by local players, which Smith feels makes a mockery of those who accuse Rams of trying to buy success.

“Interestingly, you’ve got nine local players in our squad on Saturday,” said Smith.

“But that’s not the narrative of Ramsgate Football Club, is it?

“Are we really chucking that much money at it? That’s the question I pose.

“Last year we did have some players on big money, of course we did.

“But when you look at it now, look down the list, but people like that narrative of Ramsgate and money.

“There’s been a number of times the club’s brought players through over the years and that’s bearing fruit again.

“We’ve just got to keep our feet on the ground.

“We’ll have slip-ups, Sittingbourne will have slip-ups.

“We’ve just got to make sure that, when we do have a slip-up, it doesn’t turn into a run of bad results.”