For at least 24 hours, Folkestone Invicta have moved ahead of Kent rivals Faversham Town back into second place in the Ryman South following a hard fought one-nil win over Chipstead.

Josh Vincent’s powerful header from Matt Newman’s 71st minute corner was sufficient to seal the three points for Folkestone, but if it hadn’t been for an outstanding game from Chipstead’s keeper Milan Stojsavljevic, the difference should have been greater.

Folkestone’s manager, Neil Cugley, was happy with the result, but felt he knew the reasons behind the slow start.  He explained “We didn’t train on Tuesday, and I think that showed in that we were a bit lethargic and not as sharp as we have been.  Now we’ve got this game out of the way, we should go into the next few games a bit sharper.”

“We’ve played really well for the last few games, playing some good football, but today we didn’t really get going.  It took a good header from JV (Josh Vincent), which he’s done quite a few times over the years, to get us the win.  It was a disappointing performance, but a good crowd, three points and the bonus of Merstham losing (to Ramsgate). But we know we’ve got to play better.”

“It’s a shame we haven’t got to play Faversham again, but it is in our hands to seal third, while second place is in their hands at the moment. We’ve got to get on with winning our games, and we’ve got to relax the players.  We’ll tell them to enjoy playing, as if they don’t enjoy it then the games can become quite tense.”

With just five games remaining in the regular season, including this one, this was a game that Folkestone couldn’t afford to lose, if they were to keep alive hopes of claiming the home advantage in the playoffs. It seemed that the players were fully aware of this, and that pressure, combined with a four-figure crowd taking advantage of free entry, saw Chipstead make the brighter start.

Throughout the match, Chipstead’s wide men, Shy Blackwood and Stefan Joseph were a threat with their direct running, and Andrew Dalhouse proved a handful for the Folkestone defenders.  Yet despite a promising opening, their influence reduced as the match went on.  Dalhouse had the first chance within 3 minutes; shooting harmlessly at Tim Roberts following a run from Blackwood.  Then Joseph cut across the Folkestone defence, but dragged his effort wide.

It took until the 24th minute for Folkestone’s first sights of the Chipstead goal, and the home side benefited from Mr Packman’s interpretation of an advantage; twice bringing back play and awarding freekicks when the apparent advantage didn’t present itself.  Ian Draycott took the responsibility for both freekicks, curling one past the post from over 30 yards, then hitting a low skimming shot straight at Milan Stojsavljevic.

On 27, 31-year old Micheal Everitt, playing his 600th career match for Folkestone, took a quick freekick in the middle of the Chipstead half.  Draycott moved the ball on to Ronnie Dolan on the right wing, whose low cross was met at the near post by Richard Atkins, but the Folkestone forward couldn’t divert his shot onto the target.

Joseph put a long-range shot in on the Folkestone goal; straight into Roberts’ arms, but Chipstead were struggling to get out of their half.  In response, Nat Blanks played a long straight pass through the inside right channel, allowing Draycott to run into the area.  Draycott pulled a cross back to Jordan Wright, whose shot was blocked by Kay Osei.

Draycott had the chance of the half on 33, following a clearing header by Frankie Chappell that dropped over the Chipstead back line.  Draycott ran into the area unchallenged, and as he seemed to have picked out the corner of the net, Stojsavljevic managed to get his right hand down to divert the ball round the left post.

The Chipstead keeper used his left foot to deny Folkestone’s top scorer, Draycott, again, and was grateful that a deflection from an Atkins header at the resulting corner dropped perfectly for him to catch.

Despite dominating the half, Folkestone could have gone into the interval behind as Sachu Mbaye was left unmarked to head on target from Blackwood’s corner, with Roberts making a comfortable save.  Then, in stoppage time, Dalhouse spun past Liam Friend and his pullback would have allowed Scott Mowatt a tap-in from 6-yards, only for Josh Vincent to slide in with a challenge and put the ball behind.

Within seconds of the restart, Draycott and Atkins combined in an attempt to put replacement Jon Pilbeam in behind the defence, but the pass deflected off Liam Flanagan into Atkins’ path.  The forward’s shot was well pushed away to safety by Stojsavljevic.

Matt Newman tried a shot from distance, which was straight at the Chipstead keeper, who would be tested more on 55.  A quick corner from the left found Pilbeam at the corner of the area.  Pilbeam’s curling shot through a crowd of players left Stojsavljevic virtually unsighted, but the keeper somehow managed to divert the ball away from the right corner.

A minute later, Dalhouse’s freekick was fumbled by Roberts, but the Folkestone keeper dived bravely at the feet of Blackwood as the winger closed in to finish.  The rebound went out to the right wing, from where it was returned to the back post, and Mowatt couldn’t climb high enough, as his header drifted over the bar.

The breakthrough came on 71, as Vincent was unchallenged in meeting Newman’s driven corner, and the full-back powered an unstoppable header into the top right hand corner.

The last twenty minutes of the game turned into a midfield battle, with neither side able to get into a position to put a telling ball into the opposition area.  The only real opportunity came when Draycott was able to release Pilbeam with three minutes left, but Stojsavljevic easily gathered his cross/shot.

At the end of the game, Neil Cugley spoke about record-appearance holder Micheal Everitt, and said “Micheal is a good lad, and I’ve said before that I think he’s playing as well as ever.  When he was younger, he would try and get all round the park, but now he does the sitting role in midfield for us.  He does it brilliantly and did another good job for us today.  He’s a credit to himself and the club.  You wonder whether he could get to the thousand games?”

“We’ve been lucky that whoever we’ve brought in has usually stayed for a long time and they feel comfortable here.”

And looking forward to the next game, the match against neighbours Hythe Town, he added “I love them (Kent derbies).  People say they raise the pressure, but that’s nonsense.  This is part-time football and you want to look forward to these big games, with hopefully another few hundred through the gate.  We’ll enjoy it, and see what happens on Monday.”

FOLKESTONE INVICTA: Tim Roberts, Josh Vincent, Nat Blanks, Liam Friend, Frankie Chappell, Matt Newman, Jordan Wright, Ronnie Dolan (Jon Pilbeam 46), Ian Draycott, Richard Atkins, Micheal Everitt.

Subs not used: Roland Edge, James Everitt, Reece Palmer, George Fender.

Goal: Josh Vincent 71

Booking: Jon Pilbeam 56

CHIPSTEAD: Milan Stojsavljevic, Simon Mensah (Nemi Mole 81), Liam Flanagan, Ryan Woodford (Luke Carpenter 73), Kay Osei, Sachu Mbaye, Shy Blackwood, Mark McLeod, Andrew Dalhouse, Scott Mowatt (Bayley Colbran 77), Stefan Joseph.

Subs not used: Scott Miller

Booking: Ryan Woodford 24

Attendance: 1,052
Referee: Mr Jack Packman
Assistants: Mr Ivan Gelov and Mr Mike Marsh