On a sunny afternoon in September, Worthing, inspired by a superb midfield performance by Marvin Armstrong, deservedly took the three points away from the BuildKent Stadium with a 2-1 victory over Invicta in a hard-fought and entertaining game.
In truth, they had much of the play for the first hour and it was only when we scored that we really start posing a more constant threat to their goal.
However, things could have been so different, unusually attacking the Wilmoths end in the first half, we kicked off and immediately the ball came to Alfie Paxman on the edge of the area, he let fly and the Worthing goalkeeper, Roco Rees, made a tremendous save to prevent us taking the lead after just thirty seconds.
Worthing soon put that behind them as firstly Ollie Pearce shot wide and then Shaquille Gwengue nodded over from an Alex Parsons’ cross. Tim Roberts’ throw fell short of Scott Heard and the impressive Armstrong intercepted and won a corner which thankfully was cleared. Not to be outdone, Ian Draycott won the ball off Pearce and played it through to Paxman, whose cross-cum-shot went wide of the far post. The luck then failed to shine on Invicta as Paxman and Smith combined well to put Heard in the clear and he finished well, curling the ball into the far corner, only to see the Assistant Referee had raised his flag for a marginal offside. The same three were also involved shortly after, and this time it was Smith who had the shooting chance and with Rees beaten the ball hit the outside of the far post and went to safety.
Just as it looked like the teams would be going into the break level, with three minutes of the half remaining, Ronnie Dolan lost the ball just outside the penalty area, it was moved on to Armstrong who got to the by-line before sending over a low cross, which Ricky Aguiar smashed home after space had been created by a clever step-over from Reece Myles-Meekums. Despite the goal coming in the last few minutes, there was still time for Micheal Everitt, making his 750th appearance for the club, to pick up the first caution of the game and for Pearce and Gwengue to both shoot over when well placed.
Having gone a goal down close to the break, the last thing we wanted to do was concede another soon after half-time, but unfortunately that was what happened as after fifty-two minutes, ‘The Mackerel Men’ doubled their advantage through Pearce, who nodded home at the far post after Invicta had failed to deal with an Aguiar corner. Ironically, the corner had originally been given amid strong appeals that Myles-Meekums’ original shot had been deflected away by a defender’s hand.
Invicta needed to get back into the game quickly and as Everitt pushed forward, he was fouled on the edge of the area by Armstrong, who picked up his side’s first caution. Heard took the kick but it was too high and went out of play. Draycott then played the ball through to Adem Ramadan but with the ball bouncing around, Jasper Pattenden reacted first and headed the ball back to his goalkeeper. Callum Davies was then booked for a foul on the lively Pearce and almost immediately, Dolan became the fourth player in the Referee’s notebook when he fouled Armstrong.
Worthing were still looking dangerous and Myles-Meekums timed his run to beat the Invicta offside trap and sent in a dangerous low cross which Gwengue couldn’t quite reach under pressure from Davies and the ball bounced to safety. At the other end, Smith was fouled on the edge of the area, but Heard’s free kick was collected by Rees. In the sixty-seventh minute, Invicta got a goal back when Everitt played Smith through and he calmly slotted the ball past the advancing Rees for his first competitive goal in Invicta’s colours. This gave us the impetus and after a Heard corner had not been cleared, Paxman controlled the loose ball and shot from the edge of the area, but it was charged down and when the cross came in, Rees collected the ball well.
Although at this stage, we were having more of an influence on the game, our opponents once again reminded us that they are a dangerous side, as Aguiar and Dayshonne Golding, who had replaced Gwengue who was substituted following a foul by Vincent which earned the full back a booking, combined and the former’s shot was well saved by Roberts diving low down to his left. With the game becoming more end-to-end, Finn O’Mara won a tackle and played an excellent long ball to Draycot who in turn found Paxman and he won a corner which was again dealt with by the Worthing defence.
Thomas Chalaye became the sixth booking of the game when he prevented a free kick from being taken and then a few moments later Miles-Meekums became the seventh and thankfully the last caution of the game.
So, the game ended 2-1 to the away side and on balance that was probably about right, but although it was three points lost, we should take a number of positives from the game against the side who are everyone’s favourites for the title and on that performance you can see why.
After the game the Worthing Manager, Adam Hinshelwood, was pleased with his side’s performance, saying: “It was a great start for us as this is a tough place to come.“We have had a bit of a frustrating pre-season with lots of injuries, so I was pleased to come down here and put in such a level of performance and to create so many chances. “On another day we might have enjoyed a more emphatic victory and though we still have a lot to work on, this was a good solid away performance.”
As you can imagine Neil Cugley wasn’t quite so upbeat, but before moving on to the game, I asked him about selecting Tim Roberts in goal, he said; “It was a very difficult decision to make as both Henry [Newcombe] and Tim are good goalkeepers and had both played well in the pre-season games, so in the end I plumped for the greater experience. “However, Henry is still young, and I believe he could be Invicta’s goalkeeper for many seasons to come”.
Moving onto the game, he added; “I thought it was a high-quality game which highlights what a good standard this league has become. “I thought we started well and might have scored early on, but then Worthing started to get hold of the ball and the lad in midfield [Marvin Armstrong] started to run the show, but there were times when we gave him too much room and didn’t get tight enough, had we put more pressure on him he may have been less of an influence. “In this Division, we can’t afford to let teams play, especially one like Worthing, but after we did get back into the game after our goal, we were a lot better, but we have to ask ourselves did we do enough and I’m not sure we did.”
After the game, Scott Heard was presented with his ‘Man of the Match’ award by Club Chairman Paul Morgan standing in for Match Sponsor Roger Arnold who was unable to get to the game. Many thanks to Roger for sponsoring the game and to The Trophy Shop (Hythe) (www.kenttrophies.co.uk) for donating this season’s awards.
As a footnote to the game, later in the evening it was disclosed that Alfie Paxman had broken his hand when he landed badly following a challenge in midfield. The first diagnosis is six weeks to three months which is a real blow to both Alfie and the club as he had been our best and most consistent player in the pre-season games. Speaking to Neil, he said; “This is a real blow, as Alfie has been really good so far and I’m hoping that the diagnosis won’t be quiet as bad, and he’ll be back playing soon. “I’ve also heard that Matt Newman may be out for a couple of months as well, which mean we’ve lost two of the second meanest defence in the Division within the first week of the season, and with Kieron McCann leaving as well it hasn’t been my best week! “I’m confident we’ve got players that will be able to come in and I’m certain that Jordan Wright won’t let me down as Alfie’s replacement.”
Folkestone Invicta; Tim Roberts, Josh Vincent, Alfie Paxman, Finn O’Mara, Callum Davies (Captain), Micheal Everitt (Jordan Wright, 72 mins), Scott Heard, Ronnie Dolan, Ian Draycott (Sam Hasler, 80 mins), David Smith & Adem Ramadan Tyler Sterling, 80 mins). (Unused Subs; Henry Newcombe & Clark Woodcock).
Goalscorer – David Smith (67 mins).
Worthing; Roco Rees, Joel Colbran, Danny Barker, Marvin Armstrong, Aarran Racine (Captain), Alex Parsons (Leon Moore, 82 mins), Ricky Aguiar, Shaquille Gwengue (Dayshonne Golding, 75 mins), Ollie Pearce (Thomas Chalaye, 70 mins), Jasper Pattenden & Reece Myles-Meekums. (Unused Subs; Sam Keefe & Mo Diallo).
Goalscorers – Ricky Aguiar (42 mins) & Ollie Pearce (52 mins).
Many thanks to everyone who came along and supported their respective team this afternoon, we had a good attendance of 518.
Don’t forget we are at home again next Saturday when Wingate & Finchley visit for a Pitching In Isthmian League Premier Division game, kick-off 3:00pm although before that we visit the same team in the Emirates F.A. Cup on Wednesday, kick-off 7:45pm.