Folkestone Invicta boss Neil Cugley has been reflecting on last weekend’s 6-2 thrashing of Merstham at Cheriton Road and is hoping that with a big month looming, his side can put a run together to get themselves climbing back up the BOSTIK Premier Division table.

Speaking to KSN this week, Cugley said “Really pleased with that (Saturday) – we’ve been playing well the past couple of months – we took our chances well early on which is always important.”

“We did well last year and started well again this year to carry it on and then we dropped our standards a little bit and we’ve changed things around and now we’ve kicked on again!”

“We had a few injuries and suspensions affect us more than we realised. We brought a couple of players on and let a couple go and I’m sure it will pay dividends – eventually!”

“I said at the beginning that I thought it would be a wide-open League this year as the two big earners had got promoted – Billericay and Dulwich, two big clubs – and it led to a lot of the other clubs looking at and spending a lot of money.”

“And suddenly instead of the one of two, there’s eight or nine, who what I call are paying a lot of money and want success and that’s why I think it’s open such a lot.”

“In some ways it’s good as last year you knew who was going to be the top two, as it didn’t take a lot of working out. But this year it’s a bit different and I think it’s better as you’ve got a lot of clubs fancying their chances this year…”

“First year we got into the Division we stayed up the last week of the season and last year I think we over achieved if I’m honest and shocked a lot of people which meant that this year was always going to be a strange season – can we do it again?”

“We haven’t given up hope yet – it will be difficult, but we’re playing alright, after we’ve got a better squad now. To show it, we’ve got four out now through either injury or suspension and a couple of years ago that will have finished us…”

The lead up to and over the Christmas Holidays are always hectic with so many games – often derbies – coming thick and fast.

“Always a busy time over December against the Margate’s and the Tonbridge’s and they’re the games that you’ve got to enjoy and look forward to them, and if you don’t you won’t enjoy any game,” Cugley admitted.

“A lot of these clubs towards the top of our division have played in Conference South or above and they’re thinking that they want to get back into it, and when you look at clubs like Margate, they are big clubs and it wouldn’t surprise me if they were back at that level in the next few years.”