Neil Cugley says it’s now time for everyone at Folkestone Invicta to share the positive approach that’s emanating from the success of his side so far this season.
“We’ve got 17 league games left with ten of those at home, and we’re well placed to make the play-offs if we can carry on in the way we’ve been going all season” he said.
“We’ve got through January pretty well. It’s always a difficult month after Christmas and New Year and we ended up with just one home game, and that on a Tuesday.
“But we’re still right up there just behind the leaders and there’s no reason that we shouldn’t start saying that we’d love to make the play-offs.”
Invicta have been in the top two or three in the Bostik Premier Division since November, but they suffered a blip when people started somewhat prematurely talking about a top five finish and a place of in the end of season promotion play-offs.
“It was either that or the curse of (my) winning the manager of the month, and we’ve tried to play things down a bit since then. But the players were great over the holiday period and we’ve come out of it still in contention.”
After a relegation scrap that went right to the wire last season, and the loss of several key players during the summer, no-one was realistically expecting the kind of form that Cugley’s side have produced to delight of their longstanding fans.
“We certainly didn’t expect to be doing this well, but the players have been excellent and we can really enjoy these last three months of the season.
“We’ve brought one new player in from Hythe this week, though Ryan Cooper asked to go and has gone back to Faversham.
“I couldn’t be happier than I am with the squad we’ve got now. I had a good chat with (senior director and former chairman) Jim Pellatt and the chairman (Paul Morgan) and they’ve said can bring another player in if there’s someone we really like.
“We’ve got no intention whatsoever of letting anyone go this season.
“Ronnie Dolan played for Whitstable again last night and they beat Erith Town 2-0 in their league cup, so that’s three games and three wins that Ronnie’s been involved in over there.
“We wanted him to get more game time and that’s exactly what’s happened.
“He’s back in the squad for us on Saturday though and either he or Kieron (McCann) will come in for Scott Heard in midfield. Heardy needs an MRI scan on his knee and when we know what that shows we’ll know where we stand with him.
“Ethan Madden will is also back with the first team till the end of the season. He’s got so much potential and will benefit from an extended run with the first team.”
Saturday’s visitors are promoted 2016/17 Division One North champions Brightlingsea Regent who will be making their first ever visit to the Fullicks Stadium.
They are currently 12th in the table with 38 points from 30 games compared to Invicta’s 54 points from one game less. But on current form there’s little to choose between the two sides over the last six games.
Their recent away form has been good, however, and they are unbeaten in their last three games on the road – with wins at Lowestoft (2-1) and Kingstonian (1-0) either side of a 1-1 draw against Met Police.
- Folkestone’s next game after Saturday is Tuesday’s home friendly against Gillingham which was announced earlier this week. Kick-off, we would remind you, is 7.30pm