Cugley vows to lead Folkestone Invicta next term

The club dropped down to the Ryman League Division One South, having lost the winner-takes-all home clash to Maidstone United, courtesy of Mo Takaloo’s first-half lob.

“I’m very disappointed.” Cugley told www.folkestoneinvicta.co.uk. “We’ve got more goals and more points than last year and the mount of points we got would’ve kept us up for the last eight years or so, but it wasn’t to be this year and I’m absolutely gutted to be quite honest with you.

“Maidstone didn’t want to see another Kent team go down and I had a good chat with the Maidstone manager afterwards and we get on well but that’s football and we have to live with what’s happened.

“It’s hard to take personally because I live in the area and I want to see the club do well. For years I’ve been putting in so much hard work to get to a certain standard and I got the Club up from the Kent League to the equivalent of the Conference South and it’s really disappointing that we weren’t able to stay up there.”

The Seasiders played the majority of this season with a relatively young side; a mix of local young talent and highly rated teenagers snapped up from further a field.

The more experienced members of the squad who have played most matches have generally only been in their mid twenties and as one fan pointed out this week after the departure of Mark Saunders the average age of the starting eleven was well below 25.

And Cugley said: “Even though we’ve got relegated I think we have some terrific youngsters and we’re in a catch 22 situation where we find it hard to attract players because of our location and we can’t afford expensive players.

“Next season the younger lads have to be given the opportunity to grow and take this club forward and we need some experience mixed in with that.

“The younger lads have been tremendous for us, particularly in the last month when we’ve had injuries and I firmly believe that they can take this club forward.”

The likes of Frankie Chappell, Liam Friend, Charlie Glyde, James Everitt, Ben Sly, Luke Stonebridge and the more recent emergence of Liam Dickson and Josh Burchell from the excellent youth set up at Cheriton Road have rightly given Cugley his management team great cause for optimism for next season.

Discussions and negotiations with the existing squad have already begun, with the Invicta boss keen to retain a number of players which he hopes he will be able to supplement with experience and firepower budget permitting and following the release of some players.

Cugley held meetings with some of his squad on Tuesday which he described as “positive” and he will be meeting with more of the playing staff before the end of this week to establish who he wishes to retain and who will be released.

He was understandably reluctant to divulge player names at the present time but hopes he will have tied up those players who he’d like to keep at the Club for next season, in the forthcoming days.

Speaking about this season Cugley admitted scoring goals was his side‘s downfall.

He said: “We certainly haven’t scored enough goals this season, that’s for certain and its been like that for the last couple of years. We’ve lacked some real quality in front of goal since the likes of Taity (Alan Tait) and (James) Dryden left and we haven’t really replaced them and if you stick 20 goals on our goal tally then we’d be mid table.

“We have struggled ever since we’ve been in the Ryman Premier and when we get back into that league we must have experienced players, a goal scorer and be more professional.

“There have been a few good points this season but far too many bad times. Obviously it was nice matching Chelmsford and beating Wimbledon and Horsham at home but our away form in the middle part of the season wasn’t good enough and neither was our home form at the start of the season.

“I think we’ve matched a lot of the footballing sides this season but against the bigger sides, physically, such as Ramsgate, Harrow, Hornchurch, Wealdstone, Maidstone, we have been found wanting and having only taken three points against them it tells its own story.

“The fans have been great this season and I feel for them because they haven’t watched great football at home but they’ve still been there and I just hope they stick with the Club next season”.

Asked whether any decisions have been made about his own future at the Football Club, Cugley wants to stay on for a 12^th season.

“I want to stay at the Club, I was never on contract so the Club could’ve sacked me at any time but I feel that I’m the person who can bring these young lads on and make them better players for themselves and the Club.

“I really believe this is the future of the Club; I always had that philosophy when we started in the Kent League and you only have to look at the young players that have progressed in the last five or ten years to prove that I can do it.

“I think the Ryman Premier has been too tough for many of our players to seriously improve and maybe this step backwards will give them that chance to improve.”

The Folkestone boss admitted the use of the loan system had been a contributing factor to relegation.

“We haven’t had a settled squad this year and it hasn’t helped things. Saying that, sometimes it’s a gamble that you have to take when you don’t have a big budget and I think we’ve been lucky; we’ve had some very good loan players in the last couple of seasons in Luke Howell, Richard Martin and this season we’ve had Tom Bryant and they have helped the situation.

“Ideally though you wouldn’t want to touch loan players but we have to live within our means and loan players are cheaper.”

Ryman Division One is a notoriously tough league to seal promotion from and fellow Kent clubs Dartford and Dover Athletic have just gained promotion; Dartford from the ‘Northern’ and Dover from the ‘Southern’ division.

Both sides have considerable resources at their disposal and the task Invicta face next season in order to gain promotion back to the Ryman Premier cannot be underestimated.

A full meeting of the Board is due to take place later this week where various issues relating to this season and next year’s campaign are set to be discussed and remedied.

Fans are reminded tonight marks the testimonial of tough tackling midfielder Micheal Everitt. Mev has played over 40 matches this season and has been almost ever present in Cugley’s starting eleven.

The local lad is only 25 but has already notched up over 250 appearances for the Club, smashing the record set by former Invicta striker and close friend of Mev, James Dryden.

Cugley said: “Micheal has been a great servant to the Club and in the last month in particular he really has shown why he’s such a valuable player and he has really wanted to keep this club up.

“He thoroughly deserves his night and I really hope the fans come out and show their support to a player that has been a real credit to the Club and the whole town”.

An array of former Folkestone players including the likes of Adam Flanagan, Scott Lindsey and James Dryden will take on a Gillingham side which includes former Invicta player coach Mark Saunders, previous assistant manager at the Buzzlines Stadium Mark Patterson and Dover Athletic player manager Andy Hessenthaler.

Article courtesy of www.folkestoneinvicta.co.uk