Cugley sets nine point target from next three games

Folkestone Invicta earned a creditable 1-1 draw at Leyton on Saturday afternoon, with Walid Matata scoring a second half equaliser after the hosts had gone ahead through a first half penalty, reports Andy Bown and Tom Marchant - www.folkestoneinvicta.co.uk


Matata was restored to the starting line up in place of Chris Wright, whilst John Guest returned to the defence in place of the suspended Adam Flanagan.

Invicta welcomed back defender Stuart Playford who returned to the squad on the bench, alongside midfielders Martin Chandler and Stuart Myall, forward Chris Wright and goalkeeper Matt Hurley.

After a disjointed first half display Invicta manager Neil Cugley was considerably more impressed with what he witnessed after half time.

“Second half I thought we were outstanding,” he said. “I felt first half we didn’t really hurt them further up the pitch but second half I felt we dominated it”.

Cugley felt that his side created a lot more opportunities in this period of the match which was encouraging, as he said this wasn’t something the team had being doing earlier in the season and this was now giving the players more confidence. He also states it is now obviously a case of taking some of these opportunities.

The Folkestone boss said he changed things half an hour into the match, as Leyton’s left winger was pushing James Fraser back. Therefore he swapped Fraser around with midfielder James Everitt allowing the former to attack more.

Cugley amitted he had a little moan at Fraser and Matata during the interval as he didn’t feel they were doing enough to get forward and were not getting crosses in. However he was much happier with their performance after the break “They did get more forward second half and they caused a lot of problems and they worked well together on the goal”.

Cugley feels the side must have more confidence in their abilities, which was also something he put across at his half time team talk. He said: “Earlier on in the year, I think that is a game we would’ve lost. We’ve got to believe in ourselves a bit more and obviously we changed it a little bit more to get young Fraser further up the pitch”.

Fraser certainly managed to attack more, with Cugley explaining: “with James (Fraser) pushing up so much more, we were playing three up front near enough! We’ve got to have the confidence to do that from the word go, even if we’re losing, we’ve still got to work them back”.

Cugley was also pleased with the way the way Folkestone passed the ball, attributing the improvement to the role of Kevin Watson – who was deployed in a sweeper role, and midfielder Mark Saunders. Neil stated: “Him (Watson) and Mark make us play a lot better and with Kevin playing as sweeper, he’s more comfortable on the ball and so is Mark and all of a sudden you’ve got lads in the centre of the team passing well which rubs off on the rest of the players”.

With the Folkestone boss keen to retain Watson in the sweeper position, he has another welcome selection headache, as the defensive unit fielded Saturday was due to the suspension of Flanagan.

Looking towards the visit of Maldon Town to the Buzzlines Stadium tonight, there is no real injury problems to report. Neil did mention however, “Paul Jones is still carrying a bit of a groin problem, but he got through the game (against Leyton) and should be ok for Monday”.

The manager feels that with the squad he has now, it is much easier to cope if the team pick up any injuries on a Saturday and have a game on the following Monday. Midweek games have been switched this season to Monday nights from Tuesdays, but Cugley believes this isn’t a problem for the players. “The opposition may not prefer it so much because they’ve got to come down on a Monday night, but I prefer the fact that we can train very hard on a Wednesday night and the players have got the Thursday and Friday to recover.”

With regard to playing another game two days after the previous as will be the case against Maldon, Neil thinks it doesn’t give any the players any real fitness problems, expressing: “I think our fitness is good, I don’t think we’ve got lads that particularly have a night life so to say, so I have no worries”.

The Invicta manager feels there is a real positive buzz around his squad at the moment because of the way the side are playing: “The defenders especially, they’re more happy, particularly because they see chances are being created and that’s taking the pressure off them, where to be fair, a lot of our victories in the past have been because of the defence where they have had to hang on to 1-0 leads”.

Cugley feels that if Folkestone play as they have been doing over the last few games then there is no reason that they can’t win the next three games, which are all against teams in the bottom three of the Ryman Premier.

He said:  “If we play like we did the last two games, then obviously we’ll be looking for at least nine points. We really don’t want them beating us otherwise we’ll be in difficulties with regards to relegation”.

But as he has stated before, it is important to respect the opposition as tonight’s game will be tricky against a side that picked a 1-1 draw against second placed Fisher Athletic at the weekend.

Although Maldon Town have not won in the Ryman Premier since October, with a 3-2 victory against East Thurrock United. The side are currently positioned second from bottom in the league, and have drawn three and lost three of their last six away games.

Folkestone Invicta v Maldon Town
Ryman Premier League
Monday 30^th January 2006
Kick Off 7:45pm
at the Buzzlines Stadium, Cheriton Road, Folkestone