PLAY-OFF HEROES: Cugley took the pressure away from us, says Jackson

Sunday 02nd May 2010

HUNDREDS of delighted Folkestone Invicta supporters are waking up with sore heads this morning - following a night of celebrating their heroes promotion back into the Ryman Premier League after a two-year absence, writes Stephen McCartney.

It has been quite a remarkable week of football at Cheriton Road - in fact it has been a remarkable season for Neil Cugley’s and his battling warriors, who have played around adversity and come out on top.

Last summer Cugley didn’t even know if his club were to drop down to the Kent County League or remain in the Ryman League Division One South - due to the club’s crippling debts.

Eighteen-months ago, the club were forced to offload most of their contracted stars and Cugley spent the rest of last season blooding in local talented youngsters.

And he was rewarded yesterday as they all stood tall and defeated Godalming Town 2-1 - courtesy of first half goals from Josh Vincent and Simon Austin - and soaked up plenty of pressure that the Surrey side could throw at them and survived a penalty decision when cheater Graeme Purdy dived over Jimmy Jackson, before referee John Busby consulted his assistant David Jones and made the right decision by awarding Folkestone a free-kick and booking Purdy.

The club have collected the most points in the Ryman One South this season - but were deducted ten points in February for going into a Company Voluntary Arrangement, where the club must pay £800 per month over five-years to clear their debts.

Big-spending Croydon Athletic have therefore won the league by default - and Folkestone finished second and held home advantage over Leatherhead and Godalming Town in the nerve racking play-off lottery.

Folkestone have a penalty shoot-out record similar to England’s. They have lost to Deal Town (Kent Senior Trophy), Welling United and Harrow Borough (FA Cup), Heybridge Swifts and Dartford (Ryman League Cup) and their only success by this method previously was to win pre-season minor trophies against Welling United (Sid Burvill Cup) and Dover Athletic in the Malcolm Welsh Shield.

Imagine the fans delight when Darren Smith, Liam Friend, James Dryden, Brendon Cass and James Everitt all converted their spot-kicks and goalkeeper Jack Delo saved Leatherhead’s fourth effort, taken by Jon Coke as Folkestone came through 5-3 after the dramatic game finished 2-2 after 120 minutes of nail-biting football?

Folkestone Invicta were 2-0 down at half-time as Colin Boulter gave Leatherhead the advantage, but this side do not know when they’re beaten and Smith pulled one back to lift them off the floor before Frankie Chappell restored parity.

Against Godalming yesterday, Folkestone’s two wing-backs, combined for a 19th minute opener - against the run of play - when Josh Vincent’s diving header (from Josh Burchell’s cross) found the back off the net.

But Godalming levelled within two minutes through the impressive Phil Williams, who was left unmarked to head the ball from close range after Delo didn’t come off his line.

But Jimmy Jackson’s 26th minute free-kick was hooked home by Austin and despite plenty of second half pressure coming their way, Folkestone were not going to be denied their deserved promotion place.

One of the more experienced heads in the Folkestone squad, Jackson, reflected on his second campaign at Cheriton Road, when speaking to www.kentishfootball.co.uk yesterday.

“The season that we’ve had, this is just the icing on the cake really,” said the well-liked midfielder.

“To finish second and have the ten points taken away and still go on and win the league just shows the character of the side.”

When asked if he’s going to stay at Cheriton Road to play Ryman Premier League football next season, Jackson replied, “Hope so yes!”

“We’ve obviously got the youngsters signed up for next year, which is the right thing to do. The older ones in the team, we haven’t really spoken to the manager yet but to be quite honest. All we wanted to do was concentrate on getting promotion first of all!

“If we did not win the title, we wanted to go up via the play-off’s so we’ve not spoken to the manager yet but none of us are worried about speaking to him. The main objective was to get Folkestone in the league above.”

Delo, Burchell, Liam Dickson, Liam Friend, Vincent, Chappell and James Everitt have all signed contract for next season.

Jackson added: “It’s been six or seven youngsters that have been chucked in at the deep end and they’ve all come out swimmingly.

“They’ve been tremendous and unbelievable, which shows the local standard in the area that they’ve all come in and all of them, you can’t pick a lot between them, they’ve all been superb!

“You expect two or three of them to have struggled but no-one has and they’ve just improved and they’ll get better and better as the season’s go on.

“It’s made my job easier, they’ve got the legs and for us older ones we can go and do things.”

Jackson, who turns 34 in a month, is like the rest of the Folkestone close-knit group of players - they have stuck two fingers up at the football authorities for clinching promotion despite being deducted 10 points for off-the-field matters.

What’s the betting that the Football Association will impose bigger points deductions from next season to clubs that get into financial difficulties?

“This is brilliant, this is right up there,” expressed Jackson. “How small our squad is and what’s gone on in the club internally and it’s been great credit to the lads to put all of that behind them and got on with the football side of things.

“Over the course of the year we’ve proved that we deserved to be up. We would’ve won the league comfortably so to finish second with 10 points deducted is just a great tribute to everyone associated with the club.”

When asked how he felt when the club were deducted 10 points ahead of the top-of-the-table clash away to Croydon Athletic in February, the former Gravesend & Northfleet and Margate star replied, “It was hard to take really but you’ve got to do what’s best for the club and you trust the people higher up in the club to make those decisions.

“We knew it was happening, but there were so many rumours going around. I mean, at that point before we didn’t know they’d still be a club in the summer. People were phoning us up, other managers were saying basically that Folkestone are folding so to just have a club at all is a massive achievement.

“All the supporters have been superb, they’ve all been behind us.”

Jackson paid tribute to manager Cugley for taking away the pressure from the team.

“The manager and assistant manager have not put any pressure on the players and we’ve just gone out and performed consistently well,” he said.

“It’s been brilliant for us because it’s mind games. At one point it couldn’t last because we’ve got a small squad, we don’t have any money to bring in new players. He probably would have liked to but the pressure has been off us, he’s taken the pressure away. The players haven’t felt the pressure.

“I’ve played in teams when you’ve felt pressure and it’s horrible and the whole season we haven’t felt pressure.

“Even today there was no pressure on us. Obviously we wanted to go up after what the club’s been through. It wasn’t going to be the end of the world. We’re a young side and they are always going to improve.”

Goalkeeper Jack Delo, who has kept 23 clean sheets in 49 appearances, knows how strong the Ryman Premier League is.

The former Ramsgate stopper told www.kentishfootball.co.uk : ““The Ryman Premier isn’t going to be easy. I’ve played in it before and there is a difference in standard.

“We’re going to get in pre-season and work hard and give it a real go and the scenes at the end off the game shows what it means to us and the club and all the fans.

“Everything that we’ve been through the 10 points deducted and that and we’ve still managed to get through.”

The versatile James Everett - with 11 goals to his name this season - is also looking forward to playing the likes of Tonbridge Angels, Maidstone United and Cray Wanderers next season.

“I’ve played in there a few times in my career, but it’s good,” he added, when speaking to www.kentishfootball.co.uk yesterday. “We’ll all go up to get some more experience and see how we do next year.”

www.kentishfootball.co.uk congratulate Folkestone Invicta on their promotion!

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

Folkestone Invicta v Sittingbourne

Kent Senior Cup Final

Tuesday 4th May 2010

Kick Off 7:45pm

At Cheriton Road, Folkestone, Kent CT19 5JU