If we play as we can we ought to get the result that we want, says Neil Cugley

Thursday 06th September 2012

FOLKESTONE INVICTA face their biggest game so far this season when they take on Badshot Lea in the First Qualifying Round of the FA Cup on Saturday.

It’s hard to overstate the financial boost that a good Cup run can bring to a club like Invicta – they pocketed £1,750 from beating Herne Bay in the last round and there’s £3,000 on offer for the winners of this one.

New signing Reggie Savage impressed in last night’s 1-0 Kent Senior Cup defeat against Gillingham, but is ineligible for the Cup tie, and whether boss Neil Cugley can afford to keep the experienced 32-year-old striker is very much dependent on his side’s further progress in the world’s oldest club knockout competition.

“Gleds (Lee Gledhill) knows him and mentioned he was available and I felt that he did well considering he’d come in at such short notice and didn’t know the rest of our players,” explained Cugley, when speaking to www.folkestoneinvicta.co.uk.

“But we can’t take on any new players on wages at the moment. Hopefully we can get the result we need on Saturday and that position could alter.”

“Paul Jones has had a scan and should be back a week on Saturday while Josh Vincent is having ultra-sound treatment to help sort out his problem and could be back in three or four weeks.

“If we get those two back and can manage to hold onto Reggie we’ll have quite a nice squad here and can start to look forward again.”

James Everitt is expected to move back up front in place of Savage with Roland Edge coming back into midfield with only a couple of minor niggles among the rest of the squad.

Last night's defeat in the Kent Senior Cup represents only a minor disappointment for Folkestone in the midst of more important knockout fixtures.

“With the first round of the Senior Cup now having to be played in September it’s hard to know what to do when we have both this important Cup game followed by an FA Trophy time seven days later,” said Cugley.

“We don’t like losing but we certainly didn’t want extra-time last night. All in all I thought both sides played some nice football. Their people complimented us on the quality of the football we played and it’s nice to get those sort of comments.”

Looking ahead to their trip to Godalming to play Badshot Lea – a side that are in seventh-place in the Combined Counties League table and are unbeaten at home in the league, Cugley said: “Badshot are in a lower division than us. We’ve had them watched and if we play as we can we ought to get the result that we want – even if it means bringing them back here for a replay.”

Like Invicta, the Combined Counties League side suffered their first competitive defeat of the season this week when they went down 3-1 in the FA Vase at Colliers Wood last weekend.

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

Badshot Lea v Folkestone Invicta
The FA Cup with Budweiser First Qualifying Round
Saturday 8^th September 2012
Kick Off 3:00pm
at Wey Court, Meadrow, Godalming, Surrey GU7 3JE