Everitt helps Invicta maintain impressive form on the road

Folkestone Invicta continued their superb Ryman Premier League away form on Saturday with a 1-0 victory over basement boys Leyton.

The victory sees the Seasiders remain proudly positioned at the top of the away performance league, having won four and lost one of their five away matches so far this season.

Speaking to www.folkestoneinvicta.co.uk, manager Neil Cugley said: “I’m absolutely delighted; delighted for the players more than anything and it shows what a great team spirit we have that we played as a team and the players that aren’t playing still can come on and have an impact. It’s all credit to the players.

“The way we’re playing at the moment is very demanding and we’re changing it quite often and they just go out there and perform.

“We played very well against Billericay but the last three games we haven’t played well really and yet we’ve stuck in there, haven’t let a goal in and have remained unbeaten so it’s still going well”.

The Seasiders didn’t manage to create any clear cut chances in the first half, with arguably the best effort falling to the hard working Leigh Bremner who saw an overhead kick shave the wrong side of the crossbar.

“We didn’t play very well first half”, conceded Cugley. “The central midfield pairing for Leyton were very good and we never really got tight on them so they bossed things first half.

“We changed things at half time, took Mark (Saunders) off, put Ratty (James Everitt) in more of a holding position with his brother and they’ve stopped their two midfielders getting on the ball and I thought we were the better side second half”.

North London based striker Ellis Remy replaced midfield maestro Mark Saunders in a tactical switch and Cugley said this allowed him to rest his right hand man for the clash away at AFC Wimbledon this Tuesday night.

Cugley said: I would’ve been really disappointed not to have come home with three points as the second half progressed and we had two or three terrific set plays we could’ve made more of and I think Kevin Watson and Roland Edge give us a lot of variety with their right and left foot.”

Man of the moment James Everitt popped up with the match winning goal towards the end of the second half.

It has been a big week for the local lad as Ratty also got the only goal of the match away at Windsor & Eton on Tuesday night in the replay for the Second Qualifying Round of the E.on sponsored F.A Cup. That goal saw the Seasiders progress to the Third Qualifying Round, with a tie against Hillingdon Borough this coming Saturday (3pm) at the Buzzlines Stadium, Cheriton Road.

“It was a very good goal actually, a very good header and Roland Edge had just put an equally as good as ball in five minutes before and we should’ve put that away and this ball was just as good and James Everitt has put an excellent header away and is getting better and better at popping up in and around the box”, Cugley stated.

With an impressive start to the season which has seen him notch up 4 goals already, James is beginning to imitate his older brother Micheal as irreplaceable in Cugley’s starting 11. Both players are products of an envied youth setup at Cheriton Road.

Cugley explained: “We’ve played him (James) further up the pitch this year and what we have also done is put him up for corners and free kicks just because he gets in the positions and gets the goals.

“He deserves everything he gets because he’s very brave and he’s completely unlike his brother who can’t score for toffee nuts!

“He’s becoming a very important player and both of the Everitt’s are really great people to have at the Club; they don’t shirk any responsibilities, they always give 100% and they are getting better as players this season”.

Unfortunately the second half saw the withdrawal of creative midfielder James Corbett with a knee injury, with Damian Abel coming on to replace him.

The Invicta manager said Corbett will have a late fitness test on Tuesday to determine whether he will be able to play at Kingsmeadow.

He added: “It’s hard to tell at the moment. If the game was Monday then he’d definitely be out but maybe by Tuesday he’ll be ok. We haven’t got a bad little squad here now and if he doesn’t play then Briggsy or Ellis can slot in there”.

After Saturday’s match the squad went to the greyhound races and Cugley explained: “We try and do different things and as I said before we do have a good bunch of lads here and a good spirit which good teams need. Mark Saunders organised it and no one’s going to argue with him and it was a good evening!”

Looking ahead to Tuesday night, the Seasiders make another trip to London to take on non-league giants AFC Wimbledon.

Invicta don’t have many fond memories from previous away encounters with AFC losing 4-1 in the 2005/2006 season and 4-0 in the 2006/2007 season but the Folkestone faithful will remember fondly the 1-0 victory at home in the 2005/2006 season courtesy of an exquisite goal by the since departed Stuart Myall – awarded goal of the season.

Cugley mused: “Both times we’ve been there we’ve been well beaten and hopefully on Tuesday we can reverse those results, be more positive than in the previous visits and really go out and win it.

“Winning at Leyton  gives us a huge amount of confidence and our form has been absolutely outstanding and it’ll make teams weary of playing us. Obviously we’ve got to pick some more points up at home and then we can push on even more.

“They always have good players. They play fast, physical football and it’ll be our toughest game of the season. We need to dig in, hassle them, make it difficult and cause them problems in the final third”.

Article courtesy of Andy Bown & Tom Marchant - www.folkestoneinvicta.co.uk.

AFC Wimbledon v Folkestone Invicta
Ryman Premier League
Tuesday 9^th October 2007
Kick Off 7:45pm
At Kingsmeadow, 422A Kingston Road, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey KT1 3PB