Home grown talent has kept us up, says Cugley - EXCLUSIVE

Folkestone Invicta boss Neil Cugley has admitted the season that’s just ended was “the hardest” of his ten-year reign at the club, writes Stephen McCartney.

Invicta maintained their Ryman Premier League status on the final day of the season when home-grown midfielder James Everitt scored a vital second half equaliser to pick up a point at Carshalton Athletic - avoiding the drop by just a point.

“It’s been hard work, maybe the hardest, been here ten years and I say it’s the hardest season of the lot,” Cugley said EXCLUSIVELY to www.kentishfootball.co.uk.

“Played a good standard and delighted that we’re able to stay at that standard.”

Cugley has to play home-grown players as he cannot afford to ship in players from other locations.

“The fact that we’re a bit tucked away as well doesn’t help but you can’t keep making excuses," he said.

“We didn’t perform that well this year but we don’t pay big money. It is a bit hard but we’ll try to resolve that.

“I think we’ve got eight contracted players for next year, obviously a lot of them are the younger lads that have done so well for the club this year and all credit to them, that’s the reason that we’ve stayed up.”

Cugley didn’t want to reveal whose on contract, but added: “It’s mainly the younger lads. They’ve been an important part and they’re easy ones to tie to the club because they’re all sort of 18 or 19.

“Without them there’s no way we would have stayed up because we wouldn’t be able to afford the players from away.

"We’ve brought in a lot of lads like Ben Sly, James Everitt and Liam Friend.

“I think I’m correct in saying eight or nine of our fifteen man squad at the end of the season are local lads and that’s literally come from our youth team and that’s a great credit and hopefully they’ll get better and better.”

Cugley was disappointed that the club finished the season in the bottom five, and will be looking for improvement next term.

And he will put his case forward for a bigger budget at Tuesday night’s board meeting.

“We’ve got a board meeting on Tuesday and obviously (the new board) are trying to run the club properly and get everything done correctly,” said Cugley.

“Does that mean more money? I don’t know.

“They’ve got to get the whole club sorted out top to bottom and that’s what they want to do and hopefully I know Tuesday if we’ve got more finances.”

Reflecting on the past season, he added: “I don’t need that again - that was a lot of hard work!

“Most year’s I’ve been here, I’ve been here ten years, I’d like to say eight or nine of them, we’ve always improved each year and last year we didn’t improve so that’s a disappointment.”

Visit Folkestone Invicta’s website: www.folkestoneinvicta.co.uk