For the second time in six days, spirited Invicta twice came from behind to win a high profile game against Kent opposition and deservedly progressed to the second qualifying round of the Emirates FA Cup – bagging a more than useful £3.000 in prize money, which will hardly go amiss.

And with the home side snatching a dramatic victory five minutes into time added on – predominantly for the visitors’ time-wasting – this was, perhaps, even more entertaining than the Bank Holiday victory at Tonbridge.

But Folkestone lost very much-in-form defender Matt Newman after only four minutes and before they had time to settle down had conceded the lead when a rare slip by club legend Micheal Everitt gifted veteran striker Charlie MacDonald with the opening goal of the game.

Scott Heard and Kieron McCann both went close at the other end without troubling humourless keeper Ben Bridle-Card and it took until the last minute of the opening half for Folkestone to come up with a by then deserved equaliser.

Sam Hasler’s free-kick from well outside the 18-yard box was always going in and he has been credited with the goal despite just the slightest touch off the head of man of the match Ade Yusuff.

The equaliser sent Folkestone into the half-time break in good heart but Borough tore at them after the interval with their wide men, particularly, posing problems for the excellent Callum Davies and his fellow defenders.

A run and cross from the Greenwich right gave the offside-lurking Travis Gregory a simple touch-in and despite referee Shaun Ferrer asking the view of his assistant – who had been palpably wrong on several first half decisions – the goal stood and the Bostik South promotion chasers were 2-1 ahead just before the hour.

But just as at Tonbridge six days earlier, Folkestone took the game by the scruff of its neck and started to pile on the pressure with the introduction of last season’s top scorer Joe Taylor who looked sharp and goal hungry on this, his first appearance of the season following a knock in pre-season.

As the tempo increased, Borough’s former Dartford player Kaka Dembele (once featured with Cristiano Ronaldo in a Nike advert) picked up his second yellow card for a callous challenge on Invicta midfielder McCann and the visitors were down to 10-men after 67 minutes.

With a quarter hour of normal time left, Folkestone got back on terms as the ball was laid back giving Everitt (left) the chance to atone for his early error with a well-struck low effort into the far corner of the net.

Things went from bad to worse for Borough when ex-Sittingbourne fullback Tom Carlse had to be helped off, and, having used all their substitutes, the visitors ended the game with only nine men on the field.

But Borough had blatantly time-wasted when they were in front with their goalkeeper the biggest culprit, but they had little response now that Invicta were back in the game with subs Taylor and Jordan Wright both going desperately close.

And deep into the considerable amount of time added on by referee Ferrer – who had a good game – Invicta forced a corner from the right and Hasler’s cross was headed home by new ‘choir’ favourite McCann to complete Invicta’s second truly memorable 3-2 victory in successive games.

The £3K prize money is very welcome and another home tie would be great when the draw takes place on Monday – pretty please!!

Invicta: Roberts; Vincent, O’Mara (Wright 88), Everitt, Davies, Newman (Kisitu 4), Hasler, Heard, Draycott (Taylor 61), Yusuff. McCann.

Subs not used: Blanks, Osei, Chalmers-Stevens, Sahadow

Attendance: 351

Images courtesy of: Colin O’Reilly