The snow that brought about the postponement of this last weekend’s trip to Thurrock may prove a blessing in disguise for play-off chasing Folkestone Invicta, reckons manager Neil Cugley.
“These next two home games – against Met Police and then Lowestoft next Tuesday – are now looking increasingly important to us if we are going to make the play-offs” said Neil today, Monday.
Recent injuries to two of his four main strikers looked like keeping both Johan Ter Horst and Ian Draycott out the running for what would have been Folkestone’s first and last competitive game against the Essex side who look virtually certain to go out of existence at the end of this season.
“You’re right” said Cugs. “Draycs and Johan had no chance of playing (on Saturday) but with no game now until the weekend at least one of them may be fit enough to be considered.
“I’m also hoping to hear that (standby keeper) Nick Shaw is okay again after his recent operation.”
Having hit top spot in the table the previous weekend, Invicta found themselves pushed down to second place in the Bostik Premier Division following Billericay’s 1-0 win over Dorking, played at Aveley last Thursday because of the state of the title favourites’ pitch at their own New Lodge stadium.
And Dulwich’s 3-0 victory over Worthing, yesterday (Sunday – played at Tooting & Mitcham because of Hamlet are locked out of their own ground in the continuing dispute with landlords Meadow Residential – saw Gavin Rose’s men leapfrog both Invicta and the ‘Ricay’ and back to the top of the table.
“Those two results, especially, show just how much we’ve got to do.
“We could have hoped that Worthing might have done better against Dulwich, but that’s only underlined just how tough our run-in really is” said the Folkestone boss.
“There are no easy games in this league, but we’ve got to get as many points as we can from our next two games before we go to Staines and then take on Margate in the space of three days over Easter.”
The Thurrock game is now rescheduled for Tuesday, April 17th.