Assistant boss Darren Beale has warned against complacency as Ramsgate push for the Isthmian South East title.

Rams moved 10 points clear of rivals Sittingbourne at the weekend after winning 5-0 at struggling Lancing, although the Brickies play their game in hand at Hythe tonight.

With seven matches to go, starting with fifth-placed Merstham at home this Saturday, nothing is won yet.

“We’ve just got to tick them off one game at a time,” said Beale, whose team need seven points to bring up a century.

“Even if teams aren’t playing for anything, we’re a massive scalp to them, so they seem to raise their game, then you’ve got the teams fighting for survival and the teams trying to get in the play-offs, so every game is hard.

“Another season, the league could already be won, but it’s not, so we’ve got to keep working hard and just focus on us. We can’t afford to be complacent.

“You look at the table and think we’ve got that little bit of a buffer but that can change within a week.

“If you drop points and Sittingbourne pick them up, that can change massively.

“We’ve already seen that happen a couple of weeks ago.

“We’ve got to keep ticking the games off and getting the three points when we can.

“There’s seven games to go.

“Some of the players were here last season, so they know what can happen in a short amount of time, and some of them weren’t.

“It’s just keeping their feet on the ground and keeping them focused and working hard, putting in the performances we know they can do. That’s the biggest issue.

“At times we’ll come up against teams who put a lot of men behind the ball and there’ll be teams that are physical and try different things.

“We’ve just got to be confident in our own ability on the day and make sure we play the football we know we can and hopefully that gets us over the line in the individual games.”

Benny Bioletti and Jay Leader struck midway through the first half as Ramsgate took charge at Lancing.

Alfie Paxman’s second-half double and a Joe Taylor strike completed the scoring.

Beale said: “We started off a little bit slow at first but grew into the game.

“It’s a massive pitch there so that was one thing we were mindful of, there’s a lot of space that can be found.

“They’ve got fairly new management in there and a turnover of different players.

“We try and do our homework and analysis but we really didn’t know what we were going into on Saturday and you’re finding your feet as you go into the game.

“Eventually we go to grips with it and kicked on from there but it was strange because when we looked at their line-up the last two or three games, the amount of changes they’ve made, it was so hard to know either what formation they were going to be playing or what players they were going to be playing.”

Sixteen-year-old Finley Waddell made his debut as a late substitute in place of two-goal Paxman.

A product of Ramsgate’s youth set-up, the forward was identified by coach Sean Hill.

“Finley’s one that’s been doing really well,” said Beale.

“He’s been working a lot with us, training with us and he got his chance to come on at the weekend, so I was really pleased to see that.

“The whole club have embraced him being involved with us and hopefully it’s the first of many to come for him.

“He’s got an excellent eye for goal and he’s been doing really well for the youth. He’s one for the future.”

Ramsgate lost 3-2 at Merstham a fortnight ago, with Joe Ellul sent off in first-half injury time while leading 2-1.

The Moatsiders, who beat Sittingbourne 1-0 at the weekend, made their extra man count with a late winner.

Beale is looking forward to the return game.

“It was a tough game up there and they’re another good side,” he said.

“You’ve only got to look at their result at the weekend against Sittingbourne, and they should be finishing in the play-offs.

“It’ll be nice to keep 11 players on the pitch and see where we go from there.

“It’s a massive game, they’re full of confidence, they’ve got excellent home form but so have we, so it’ll be an interesting encounter.”

Meanwhile, Beale has praised the work of Ramsgate physios Georgina Dean and Chloe Ellul.

They’ve played a vital role in keeping the squad fit and firing for the championship push.

“Georgina and Chloe are unsung heroes who do a lot of work in the background,” said Beale.