Ramsgate manager Ben Smith could be tempted back into the transfer market after losing defender Alfie Young.

Smith is considering his options following Young’s return to Worthing.

He’s already brought Sinn’kaye Christie back into the fold, having also seen Joe Ellul leave for Welling last week, and a like-for-like replacement for Young is on the agenda for the Isthmian South East leaders.

It was a blow to lose Young but the chance to rejoin the National League South high-fliers was one he couldn’t refuse.

Rams boss Smith said: “I’m gutted to lose Alfie because he brings something quite unique to the table but he felt he had unfinished business at Worthing.

“He wasn’t on contract and I’ve said to any player I’ve signed, I won’t stand in anyone’s way if there’s a seven-day approach.

“We waived the seven days when Worthing came in.

“They’re two leagues above and second in their league.

“Even though he found it a tough decision, it’s hard to stop someone and try and convince them to stay.

“I was never going to stand in his way, so we move on.

“It’s sod’s law that we’ve had two departures in the same position, with Joe going as well.

“It’s not ideal but we’ve got Sinn’kaye, who served us well before he went on loan to Dover, so he’s more than capable of doing well for us.

“He’s come back into the squad and we may look at more business in that area to see if we can add a like-for-like replacement for Alfie because Sinn’kaye is a very different defender.”

Ramsgate’s game at Horndean on Saturday was postponed because of a frozen pitch.

They’re due at Three Bridges tonight and host Kent rivals Sheppey this Saturday.

Unbeaten Cray Valley remain in hot pursuit, 11 points behind with three games in hand before the midweek action.

It appears Steve McKimm’s side are going nowhere.

“They keep grinding out wins so we just expect them to keep doing that,” said Smith.

“We just have to worry about ourselves.

“That’s all we can do and that’s all we’ve done all season - just worry about the next game.

“We’ve got 17 league games to go and a lot could happen.

“We could drop points and they could take over, and vice-versa. It’s that snakes and ladders effect.”

Ramsgate fought back from 2-0 down for the second match running to win 3-2 at Ashford on Tuesday last week.

Joe Taylor launched the comeback from the penalty spot and scored the winner after Alfie Paxman’s equaliser.

Smith said: “We can’t keep coming back from 2-0 down, so I’m sure that’s a bit of a warning sign to the boys that we need to start better.

“But we showed good quality to come back, especially when we’ve been depleted in forward areas.

“You look throughout the season, we seem to score goals in bunches, so it could be psychological for opponents.

“But it’s also psychological for us when we’re high on confidence and have momentum in games.”