Folkestone Invicta and their longer-suffering fans travel back almost 20 years on Saturday when the Kent club take on National League South Leaders Woking in the third round of the Buildbase Trophy at Kingfield.

It was on January 16^th 1999 that the two sides last met in this competition with the Surrey club winning an astonishing tie 8-4 after Folkestone had led early on with a goal from ace striker Nick Dent.

But the mercurial ex-Dover player was forced off with a badly gashed eye a few moments later and the underdogs trailed 3-1 just after half-time.

Then goals from Steve Lawrence and Julian Beal put them back in the hunt before The Cards pulled away to win with a hat-trick by Darren Hay in the final 20 minutes when Invicta managed one more goal, that from north-easterner Steve Cuggy.

In an earlier round, Folkestone had beaten Hayes, then managed by the long-serving Terry Brown 3-2 in an almost as memorable replay at Cheriton Road following a 1-1 draw in a hard-fought first game in Middlesex.

Their goals in that replay came from Andy Morris, Lawrence and again Nicky Dent, still rated by many as the best of some very good strikers we have had at the club.

Denty – who had moved to Kent from Poole Town to join Chris Kinnear’s Dover Athletic – famously scored for the Whites from his own half and did the same again for Invicta in an admittedly very wind-affected 1-1 league draw against Hampton &  Richmond Borough at Cheriton Road.

A prolific goalscorer who had spells in the league with Bristol Rovers among others, Nick had a fierce shot, often with very little, if any, backlift and was a firm fans’ favourite at Folkestone for many years at the turn of the century.

For this weekend, Invicta – who have hit good form, especially in the cups – travel as very much once again the underdogs but as manager Neil Cugley said, can go out and enjoy themselves to try to impress a side top of the National League South, one division higher than the Bostik Premier.

Several ‘fringe’ men played well in Tuesday’s very competent league cup victory over Hayes & Yeading United to force themselves into contention while the vastly experienced Micheal Everitt – now first team coach and closing in on 700 games for his home town club – may well come into the reckoning having shared management duties in midweek while manager Neil Cugley celebrated his 62^nd birthday with wife Pauline and friends.

Despite some supporters’ suggestions to the contrary, should Folkestone earn a draw at Kingfield, the replay would be at The Fullicks Stadium next Tuesday (November 27^th) meaning further postponement of their league game with Whitehawk at Brighton which was due to be played in Saturday.