There was good news and bad news this week for manager Neil Cugley, for Folkestone Invicta and for the players involved as the start of pre-season training gets closer by the day.
The one real downer involves all-action midfielder Scott Heard who had his knee operated on earlier this month.
Boss Cugley said: “Sadly Heardy’s had a letter from his specialists that says he needs to rest the knee a lot longer than we had hoped. It looks like he could be out all season, and, with the energy that lad has, it must be nightmare for him.
“Needless to say we’re all very disappointed both for the club, but even more for him himself.
“For someone who has never really been injured before this is hard to get used, but he’s got to play if safe and let’s hope that in five or six months’ time he might be able to think about playing again.”
Scott did get some excellent news last week to offset this heartbreak, but that’s between him and his family and remind us all that there are some things more important than football in life.
On the positive side, popular attacking midfielder Jerald Aboagye has agreed to stay with Invicta and accept the terms offered by the club at the end of last season.
“I had another meeting with Jerald yesterday and he admitted that he’d had few issues to sort out which he’s now a lot happier about”, said Cugs.
“He spoke well, and I think we now all know where we stand.
“He put in some excellent performances for us last season, but his form perhaps dropped off a little towards the end so let’s hope that he gets back to that kind of form. I’d watched him a lot (when he was at Hythe, and I was always confident that he was good enough for the Bostik Premier and I still believe that – as long as can bring a little more consistency into his game.”
The third piece of news that we can bring is that experienced midfielder/defender Phil Starkey looks likely to be returning to The Fullicks after not being involved on the playing season in 2017/18.
Starkey was a key member of Invicta’s promotion squad in the previous campaign but missed out virtually entirely last time following a long-term injury.
“Phil wasn’t paid by us last season, but he kept in touch and came to a few games. We all know what he brings to us and he walked away with several of the major trophies in our championship season so I’m delighted that he wants to come back.”
- Invicta kick-off pre-season training in the next couple of weeks with their first pre-season game on July 6th when Gillingham are their visitors.