Dover Athletic, Ebbsfleet United and Maidstone United are all within touching distance of their play-off finals.
The three Kent sides went into the opening night of the Vanarama National League Play Offs, and all three are still in with a chance of reaching the respective Finals – with two now on a collision course to decide who joins Sutton United in the Premier Division next season.
But for Dover Athletic sadly history repeated itself as for the second time in five days they were beaten by Forest Green Rovers at Crabble.
Both sides made numerous changes from the final game of the regular season at the weekend but sadly for Chris Kinnear’s side the game had the same result – a single goal win for the team from the Forest of Dean.
It was Rovers substitute Brett Williams who scored the game’s only goal – a result that leaves Dover with it all to do on Saturday evening in the second leg for the right to face either Braintree Town or Grimsby Town in the Final at Wembley later in the month.
After the game boss Kinnear bemoaned an under par performance from his side, but still has the belief that his side possesses the necessary fire power to overcome the deficit and progress.
Full coverage of the second leg with our social media accounts on Saturday evening – kick off is at 7:30pm.
Meantime in the National South, both Ebbsfleet United and Maidstone United both had great road wins at Whitehawk and Truro City respectively to set up the mouth-watering prospect of an all Kent Final for the first time in the competition’s history.
The Fleet travelled to the Sussex coast and returned with a hard fought 2-1 win courtesy of goals from Stuart Lewis and Danny Kedwell.
The Fleet’s skipper for the night set up Lewis’ opener after good work between himself and Matt Godden allowed Lewis to shoot home on the half hour.
Kedwell himself then seemed to have given Darryl McMahon’s side a cushion for Sunday’s second leg at Stonebridge Road with an unstoppable free kick quarter of an hour from time.
Whitehawk though showed why they have had such a good season when Danny Mills scored his 34th goal of the season to give the Sussex side hope for the second leg.
Meanwhile, Maidstone made the 580 mile round trip to Truro City for the second time in 19 days – and the Stones duly matched the result from their visit on April 16th.
That afternoon Jay Saunders’ side returned to the Gallagher with a 3-1 win – this time the Stones boss saw his side returning to Kent with a 2-0 lead into Sunday’s second leg.
Maidstone took the lead when Joe Healy netted for the second game running with a spectacular overhead kick on 27 minutes, before the win was sealed when Alex Flisher took advantage of defensive hesitation to score just before the hour mark.
Saunders though will be first to admit that his side may have one foot in the Final, but they still have a job to do to make sure of their place in the one off game to decide who gains promotion to the top flight of English Non-League football.
KSN will be at both of the Second legs – kick off on Sunday is at 4:00pm in both games – our coverage will start from 3:30pm.