Invicta boss Neil Cugley is hoping that this side take their A-Game to the party and recapture some form as they visit Needham Market in Suffolk for the last league game before Christmas.

Last year’s four trips to East Anglia little or no reward for Folkestone with poor pitches and controversial refereeing decisions playing their part as Folkestone finished with only one point out of 12 – and that from a 1-1 draw the last of those four games, at Lowestoft towards the end of March following earlier defeats at Leiston, Needham Market and Sudbury.

But the first time they travelled up the A12 this season showed that Cugleys’s new-look squad are quite capable of burying their Anglian jinx when they crushed high-riding Leiston 5-1 in late October.

It was a result that gained plenty of attention in non-league circles and was to help spark a run of eight wins on the bounce that shot Invicta up the table, rising to as high as second behind only Dulwich Hamlet at one point.

As enjoyable as that was, no-one ever really believed it would go on forever, though Folkestone’s four league games so far this month, December, have all ended in defeat.

Tuesday’s home game with Thurrock had looked a reasonable chance of ending that run but was ruled out by traffic problems in Essex.

Invicta would have been at full strength for the first time in a while with the return of their most experienced semi-pros, Micheal Everitt and Ian Draycott from injury and honeymoon respectively.

“With those two back we were raring to go” admitted boss Cugley. “But it’s no use crying over that.”

Folkestone have badly missed Everitt’s tenacity and steadiness in the midfield anchor role while he shook off a hamstring problem.

And the always quietly inspirational Draycott’s last appearance came in what was arguably Invicta’s best ever performance at Premier Division level when they thrashed a good Enfield side 5-1 at the Fullicks Stadium at the end of November.

Johan Ter Horst looked sharp, scoring twice and making two more goals that night, but the on-loan Maidstone striker has missed a couple of matches since with a knee problem while his four week loan spell is now almost at an end.

Looking ahead to this weekend’s game at Needham Market, the manager: “It’ll be a difficult journey with all the Christmas traffic and we weren’t impressed by the surface up there last year.

Needham escaped with all three points when last a minute goal in each half gave them a workmanlike 2-0 victory at the Fullicks Stadium in August.

“I thought we played better than many gave us credit for that day, but they took their chances and we didn’t.

“They looked a decent side when they finished comfortably in the top half last year. But they’ve lost a couple of good players since then.

“This and our three other games over the Christmas holiday period can really shape the rest of our season and show us what more we need.”