Fallen tree causes the postponement of Folkestone Invicta's midweek trip to Corinthian-Casuals

FOLKESTONE INVICTA’S trip to Corinthian-Casuals on Tuesday night has been postponed due to safety reasons.

Neil Cugley’s side were expecting to travel to Tolworth to play a Corinthian-Casuals side sitting in the bottom four in the Isthmian League Premier Division table with five points from their opening six games, however, the home club has announced that the game will not go ahead as planned.

A railway line is behind Corinthian Casuals' stadium and a very large fallen tree has caused damage and the home club have contacted the Isthmian League, who have agreed to call the fixture off.

“We awoke on Sunday to find a very large tree had fallen from the railway embankment onto our clubhouse and changing rooms, causing as yet, unknown damage,” said a Corinthian-Casuals statement.

“We’re working with Kingston Council along with Network Rail and of which engineers and specialists have been on site to assess.

“However, they’ve also identified and prioritised several other trees on the railway banking which could very easily uproot and demolishing the rest of our buildings.

“Our current situation is the tree is still where it landed as it was too large and unstable to move, requiring heavy duty, specialist equipment to move it.

“The changing rooms, toilets, kit and equipment room and clubhouse have been cordoned off with no access until the engineers have assessed any potential structural damage and declared it safe for use.”

The club added: “We hope we can rectify this as soon as possible and get back to playing matches. We’re incredibly grateful this incident happened when we were closed – it could have been a very different story if the timing was different.”

Seventh-placed side Folkestone Invicta reached the FA Cup Third Qualifying Round with a comfortable 3-0 win over Chichester City at Cheriton Road on Saturday.

The Draw for the next round is expected to be made tomorrow.  It was delayed today due to The Queen's funeral - and tonight's games were called off as a mark of respect.