Fuming Cugley tells his players: Show our fans that you care

NEIL CUGLEY slammed his Folkestone Invicta players as they came ever so close to an embarrassing FA Cup Preliminary Round exit at Kent League side Sevenoaks Town yesterday, writes Stephen McCartney.

A goalkeeper blunder from Charlie Mitten had gifted the hosts a 16^th minute lead when he kicked the ball straight at striker Marcus Elliott, who rolled the ball into an empty net.

Another mistake, this time from defender Matt Bourne, allowed Elliott to square the ball to Sevenoaks skipper Andy Constable to put his side in dreamland, with a second on 61 minutes.

However, an inspirational performance from Jimmy Jackson ensured the Ryman League Division One South visitors at least forced a replay.

Jackson and James Everitt, who was now playing as a striker, immediately brought it back to 2-2 before Sevenoaks regained the lead with 21 minutes left, through midfielder Steve Evans.

Jackson drilled home his second, and Invicta’s third just two minutes later and when striker James Dryden made it 4-3 with seven minutes remaining, that should have been game over.

However, a stunning last-gasp free kick from Sevenoaks substitute Dwayne Gibbons ensured the Kent League side earned a deserved replay at the Buzzlines Stadium on Tuesday night.

Cugley, speaking to www.kentishfootball.co.uk afterwards, admitted two mistakes had gifted Sevenoaks their 2-0 lead.

“I think it was two horrendous mistakes, unbelievable goals,” admitted a dejected Cugley. “Charlie’s kicked it against the bloke, he’s closed it down and he’s kicked it against him. It’s a terrible goal.

“And the second goal, Bourney’s only have to kick it out of play and it’s got caught under his feet and they’ve broken away and scored. What can you do about that?

“But to be fair to the players, they did dig in, that’s the one thing I’d give credit to our players. They didn’t get their heads down and they kept plugging away.

“But if you make mistakes and if you do that twice, if makes it very hard for any manager and that was very hard today.”

The only two players who stood out for sorry Folkestone were skipper Lee Gledhill and Jackson.

Early in the second half, with the score 1-0, Gledhill screamed at James Everitt to “liven up”

“I think sometimes when you have a FA Cup game it’s great in someways but sometimes your local players get a bit hyped up and not as quite relaxed as they should be, because they want it so badly, which is good, but it can also work the other way,” explained Cugley.

“Jacko’s been around and him and Gled’s aren’t local lads, they’ll just get down and play it like another game.

“I think the local lads were a little bit off today. After we got it back to two-all they were good, but up to then, Jimmy Dryden was quiet, the Everitt’s were a bit quiet, Liam Friend, maybe his poorest game he’s had so far and they’re all local lads and it showed a bit.”

Cugley demands a vast improvement for Tuesday night’s replay on home soil, to earn a lucrative first qualifying round home showdown against their Ryman Premier League neighbours Ramsgate on 13^th September.

“No-one’s talked about the next game, we’ve got to do a job. We’ll try to be professional and do the right things and we’ve got to do that again on Tuesday,” insisted Cugley.

“Even in the last minute, we’ve had a corner and we’ve whipped it in. Why whip it in? Why don’t we just hold it in the corner? Because you’re playing Sevenoaks why do things you wouldn’t do in a league game?

“In a league game we would have held the ball in there and time would have ticked away and they wouldn’t have got a free-kick.”

Cugley can call upon Lee Spiller for the replay, as his five match suspension is now over but Cugley has told his side to turn on the style.

“Prove me wrong, prove me you can defend better and play better and you want the ball and go and show your home fans what it really means,” fumed Cugley.

“Sometimes passion can be running around but passion is also getting the ball down and pass it around but at the end of the day, that’s no disrespect to Sevenoaks, we should have the better technical players.

“But for a long time in that period that didn’t show and that’s all credit to Sevenoaks but I’m also disappointed in my players.”

But Cugley knows it won’t be easy, against a Sevenoaks Town side that are well capable of creating a Cup shock.

“If you let them, yes they can (hurt you),” warned Cugley. “They’ve got a couple of nice players but a lot of my players will play a lot better on Tuesday - if selected.

“We’ve got to get their standards higher and I think we froze today and we’ve got to learn not to be like that.

“Jackson and Gledhill showed why they’ve been around for so long and if anyone Jacko was the difference today.

“He kept going and going and kept getting on the ball and doing the right things, where a few of us got a bit wary thinking we were going out of the Cup - Jacko, I don’t think, ever thought like that.”

Visit Folkestone Invicta’s website:  www.folkestoneinvicta.co.uk

Folkestone Invicta v Sevenoaks Town
FA Cup (Sponsored by E.ON) Preliminary Round Replay
Tuesday 2^nd September 2008
Kick Off 7:45pm
At Buzzlines Stadium, Cheriton Road, Folkestone, Kent CT19 5JU