Bourne terminates his contract at Cheriton Road

FOLKESTONE INVICTA boss Neil Cugley takes his youthful squad to Kingstonian tomorrow, looking to upset the stride of the League leaders, writes Tom Marchant.

The Ks have won four out of their last five matches as Worthing took all three points off the weekend's hosts in a 3-1 victory at Kingsmeadow at the beginning of the month.

Kingstonian midfielder Dean Lodge, 22, has already notched up 10 goals this season and striker Bobby Traynor has grabbed 17 so far and both will be players Folkestone will be keen to keep an eye on.

For Invicta, Cugley has no fresh injury worries to contend with.

However, Matt Bourne requested his contract to be cancelled after last Saturday's home defeat at Crowborough Athletic and is believed to be talking to a couple of interested clubs, with Sittingbourne and Whitstable Town both mooted.

The manager's disappointment at losing the dominant centre half who was part of the strongest defence in the League was tempered by the return of solid young defender Liam Dickson from Herne Bay, who has been a welcome boost to the squad.

"I think with the changes we've had to make there will be a bit less pressure on us going there than there may have been a month ago,” Cugley told www.folkestoneinvicta.co.uk.

“We’ll be telling the lads not to worry about their league position but to go out there and play and enjoy it.”

The Seasiders will be eager to pick up points from this weekend's clash after a disappointing home defeat to Crowborough last weekend.

"Despite having possession of the ball we didn't get anything of any quality into the box,” admitted Cugley.

“Fair enough Jimmy Dryden missed a good chance early on and if he had scored it might have been different but when you've got a forward of Jimmy's quality you've got to give him more chances, not just one. The final ball into the box was poor and we never tested their keeper anywhere near enough.

"But when you've got so many youngsters – you look at the back line on Saturday and Ratty (James Everitt) is the oldest of the back five – even I have to accept sometimes that you will get ups and downs and between now and the end of the year it will be a bit of a roller coaster ride.

“You get inconsistencies with young lads so we may lose to the bottom side last week but take something from the leaders this weekend. That's how it is.

"We have to keep working at it and we had a good training session on Tuesday night, which I was very impressed with and these youngsters will continue to improve and we've got to keep believing in them.

“If they want is badly enough, want to work hard in training and keep themselves fit they'll be good players, I'm sure of that.”

With the present well documented off the field financial situation, the Invicta boss sees local players as the way forward, as he seeks to fashion a second new side in a season.

Local players mixed with a couple of experienced heads including Jimmy Jackson, Charlie Mitten and Scott Lindsey is certainly capable of setting the foundations for a promising footballing future at the Buzzlines Stadium.

Cugley said: “We’ve also been having a look at the young lad Driscoll who has scored a couple of goals for the reserves and he has now been signed on Ryman forms. He's only 17 but has definitely got potential so we'll be having a closer look at him.

“The experienced lads we have got are encouraging as sometimes you get experienced ones having a go at the younger ones all the time and it doesn’t always do them a lot of good so I'm pleased with what our ones are doing for us.”

With no midweek matches now until next month, Folkestone have an extra training session a week in a period which Cugley described as similar to “another pre season”.

He said: "It gives us a couple of weeks before we go to three games a week to work on the players, get their confidence up and work on our pattern of play.

“Hopefully when we go to back to the three matches a week we'll be better organised and steadier on and off the pitch.

“It does seem very much like a pre season at the moment as you're getting new players coming in and you're working on systems and things you usually do in pre season – what we've already done!

"I popped in on the Supporters Club meeting after training so people could ask what they wanted to. It is appreciated what they are doing and there's some good people there and it needs everybody to pull together so we can survive and push on".

Article courtesy of www.folkestoneinvicta.co.uk

Kingstonian v Folkestone Invicta
Ryman League Division One South
Saturday 15^th November 2008
Kick Off 3:00pm
At Kingsmeadow Stadium, Jack Goodchild Way, 422a Kingston Road, Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey KT1 3PB