Smith took a risk to join us, admits Cugley

FOLKESTONE INVICTA boss Neil Cugley has high hopes for his new signing, Darren Smith, writes Tom Marchant.

Smith, who arrives from Ryman League Division One North side Chatham Town, made his return on Tuesday night as Invicta lost their Ryman League Cup Second Round home tie against Tilbury.

However, the player got a nasty kick on his elbow during the first half and whilst initial fears centred over a collar bone injury, the versatile midfielder was left with a bloody arm and he should be fit for the weekend home clash with Fleet Town.

Cugley, speaking to www.folkestoneinvicta.co.uk, is pleased to be able to bring a quality player to the club.

He said: “He’ll hopefully give us a bit more quality in midfield and he’s one of those players who can get the ball down.

“He can play in a lot of positions; midfield, full back, up front and with a squad of our size that versatility is important. With Jimmy Jackson away this weekend at a wedding – something we have known about for a while – and with such a tiny squad I felt we needed another player.

“He’s best mates with Scott Lindsey and lives just up the road from him and I think he feels, like I do, that Folkestone is a bigger club than Chatham and that’s no disrespect to them but once we get the finances sorted out we can kick on again.

“He knows the situation with finances and to be fair to him he has taken a risk. It’s a very difficult time when you try to sign players but he wants to come down to us. After we played Chatham last week he was impressed with how we played football.”

Tuesday night’s defeat was at the hands of Essex based outfit Tilbury, who play in the ‘Northern’ half of Ryman Division One which leaves Invicta focusing their attentions on the League and the Kent Senior Cup.

“I keep saying it’ll be a roller coaster ride and not even in the sense of game to game but half to half which is really frustrating for me and Scott (Lindsey),” reflected Cugley.

“First half, I thought we were terrible. Tilbury to be fair got two very good goals and caused us problems.

“Second half we came out and we changed our system a little bit and we were excellent but we can’t keep going from good to bad so quickly and it’s something we must learn from.

“Scott is very involved at the Club and I let him get involved (on Tuesday) night. I picked the team but I let him get more involved in what we’re doing and I think he saw the other side and what it’s like being a manager and how frustrating it can be.

“It was a chance to show what he’s about and it meant a lot to him and he was obviously disappointed with the result.

“It may only be the League Cup and perhaps it may have been worse if it was the Kent Senior or the League but you still want to win games. When you win two you want to make it three and keep a run going. I felt if we’d got the equaliser, even at the end, we would have gone on and won it in extra time.

“But we missed so many clear chances and you can’t be missing those and it must have been at least half a dozen and it was poor finishing”.

At the weekend it was loan signing Tayler Thomas who sealed victory with an emphatic strike after being put through by Jimmy Dryden after just seven minutes of their hard-fought 1-0 win at Walton Casuals.

“That was a good three points but even up there I didn’t think we played that well," admitted the boss.