Cugley hails their "best performance of the season"

Folkestone Invicta recorded a thoroughly well deserved 2-0 victory over Essex based East Thurrock United on Saturday, writes Andy Bown & Tom Marchant - www.folkestoneinvicta.co.uk

On their first visit to their opponent’s Rookery Hill stadium midfielder Mark Saunders and wing back Steve Norman got goals in the first and second half respectively.

Manager Neil Cugley named an unchanged starting line up that had beaten Harrow Borough 2-1 last Saturday at the Buzzlines Stadium.

Invicta dominated proceedings from the first whistle, gaining a victory that saw them move to 12th position in the Ryman Premier after Bromley lost 2-1 at home to Leyton.

Cugley was delighted with the performance of his side. “East Thurrock aren’t a bad side and they’ve been above us for most of the season and today we have made them look ordinary,” he said. “I definitely think it was one of our best performances all season!”

Folkestone enjoyed a considerable amount of possession throughout the first half after starting strongly, with Neil commenting: “We started at a good tempo and it was carried on the whole way through which meant we dominated the game.

“I told the players I wanted this from them as last week we didn’t do it and it’s pleasing to see we can play at this tempo for the whole match”.

The Invicta boss went on to highlight the importance of sustaining such a quality performance in the context of launching a successful bid for a play off place next season and indeed exceeding the points total from last season come the end of April.

He said: “That’s the standard we’ve got to be playing at next year if we want a realistic chance of reaching the play offs. We’ve improved our away form a lot on last year and this has been key to us climbing the table and it will be the same next year too”.

After scoring a brace last Saturday against Harrow it was the experienced Saunders again popping up on the stroke of half time to poke the ball home after centre back Adam Flannagan had flicked on a throw in from midfielder Stuart Myall, which capped an encouraging first half display from the Seasiders.

Cugley said: “I said the same last week that Mark (Saunders) is so good at gambling at getting into the box and he’s done it again today. It would’ve been a disappointment to go in at half time 0-0 because we played really well and their keeper kept them in it with two good saves”.

He went on to point out the significance of a first half goal saying: “I would have been pleased at half time anyway but it was nice to score because it gave us momentum going into the second half and it knocked the stuffing out of them”.

The Folkestone manager was also pleased with the way his squad are constantly improving as a footballing side adding: “Today I think just showed how much we are settling down and playing more football. With Kev (Watson) at sweeper it allows us to play from the back more comfortably and we have Saunders getting the ball down in the middle and the two up front are really running the ball well”.

With another two goals yesterday Folkestone have now made it four in two games showing a goal scoring improvement as before the Harrow game the side had only put one goal away in five matches.

Cugley mused: “I never thought goal scoring was becoming a real problem because we were creating chances a few weeks back but now we have more confidence and the two lads up front are looking a lot better.

“I think scoring goals is all interlinked; better players bring better football and that’ll bring more chances and I think we have those better players to do all of this now”.

Invicta’s attacking partnership of Matt Carruthers and Walid Matata was a constant menace to the East Thurrock defence all afternoon and both players had a helping hand with the goals.

“Matt Carruthers was outstanding today and it was a great determined cross to set up the second goal. He’s getting fitter and he’s really starting to enjoy his football which you can tell by the way he is playing. You can see what a quality player he is and how good he’ll be for us next season”. He added: “Walid did well up front with Matt and he just never stops running and hassling defenders. He pressured one of their (East Thurrock) defenders and did ever so well to get us a throw and from that we got the first goal”.

Travelling Invicta fans would have noticed that recently signed ex Welling United defender Lee Shearer went off after an hour of play after he sustained a knock on his ankle which has been a slight problem for the defender of late and he will be going for an x-ray this Tuesday.

Paul Lamb came off the bench to replace Shearer and Cugley pointed out “It was really nice today to be able to take Shearer off and not lose any strength in the defence by bringing Lamby on.

“The defence has been superb all season and it was never an area we had to improve and so it hasn’t changed much since last season. Bringing players like Lamby and Mev on with both of such quality and experience shows the strength of the squad we have”.

The operation that long term injury casualty Paul Jones had on his groin has all gone very well this week. The former Ashford Town striker should be able to start running in around three weeks and resume full training after six weeks. His return will be another boost to the squad as he looks to put himself in contention for a regular place in the starting line up next season.