Relegated Folkestone Invicta keep faith with Cugley

The board held a timely meeting last night to discuss the way forward for the club after the disappointment of relegation and the subsequent eagerness to ensure the Cheriton Road club are successful next season.

Chairman Mr Gordon Wallis confirmed that Cugley will be the club’s manager next season, a decision unanimously agreed by the board last night.

“We had a robust exchange of views yesterday evening and we finally concluded that the manager for next season will be Neil Cugley, which might come as a surprise to a number of people,” Mr Wallis told www.folkestoneinvicta.co.uk.

“We agreed unanimously that Neil has got something to prove. He wants the job and we all feel he’s the right man for the job.”

This will mark Cugley’s twelfth season as manager at the Buzzlines Stadium and speaking in the week when he spoke of his determination to ensure the good times are brought back to Cheriton Road, after a somewhat disappointing season, which culminated in a 1-0 home defeat in the “winner survives” match against Kent rivals Maidstone United last weekend.

“I was absolutely devastated because I’ve never been in the situation [relegation] before,” said the chairman.

“It’s very odd because I didn’t ever feel we’d get relegated and I thought we’ve got this awful situation with the last game but I firmly believed we’d do enough to stay up.

“Neil is passionate about Folkestone and its Football Club. He took the relegation of the Football Club particularly badly and he feels he’s let people down and he’s shown me in the last few days that he’s absolutely desperate to have the chance to put the Club back in the Ryman Premier and that is why the Board decided to keep him.

“Neil is prepared to work his socks off to get us back to where we were and we could’ve gone into the market, taken someone we didn’t know, with no guarantees. But we believe that for the good of this Football Club that he will do the best job for us.

Cugley is certainly under no illusions to the task ahead, with Ryman Division One South a tough league to gain promotion from. A look ‘over the hill’ only confirms the difficulties Folkestone’s arch rivals have had in securing promotion to the Ryman Premier.

Wallis recognises there will be a cohort of people who will be surprised that the Board have decided to retain the services of Cugley.

“I think Neil would say he has done the best with what he has had available to him,” said Mr Wallis. “He has nurtured through a number of young players who I believe will be better next season with more experience. He knows those players very well; they’ve been training with the first team from the youth section and I believe he can make them better.

“One can understand when things aren’t going well at a football club the first person people point a finger at is the manager and then the chairman and it would be very easy to go out and get rid of him but we would have to find someone who is better.

“I can understand the feelings of the supporters obviously because they just want to follow a winning side.”

Folkestone’s youngsters have formed the backbone of the side this year, with Frankie Chappell and Liam Friend excelling in defence behind highly promising goalkeeper Luke Stonebridge who due to the injuries to Charlie Mitten, enjoyed an extended run between the sticks and he didn’t disappoint.
Charlie Glyde, Ben Sly and James Everitt added pace and energy to the midfield, and the goals of the latter in particular came at crucial times.

In the absence of Roland Edge (injury), solid reserve defender Liam Dickson made the step up to the first team and impressed in matches against Margate, AFC Hornchurch and Maidstone.

Dickson looks set to cement his place in the first team squad next season, another sign of the productive youth set up at Cheriton Road.

In aiming to deliver success on the field next season, Mr Wallis believes five or six new signings will be required, saying that one “quality” signing is imminent.

“I’ve told Neil that I want signings that are going to complement the youngsters we have,“ said Mr Wallis.

“We hope to in the near future announce the signing of a quality player, a player who will complement what we already have and someone who will get us out of this league. We need five or six new players on top of him to add to our squad bearing in mind players will be leaving.

“The playing budget remained the same throughout the whole of last season and what was put in place at the start stayed the same.

“The budget will be the same for the forthcoming season and it should give Neil the opportunity to bring some decent players in”.

Asked whether he believed it would be difficult to attract players bearing in mind Invicta will be competing at a lower level next season, Mr Wallis replied: “Yes it will be but incidentally it would’ve been difficult if we had to find a new manager. It’s not easy where we are to attract players from Essex, Sussex and London when there are richer pickings for them closer to home.

“Folkestone Invicta have a pretty good name and if we’re lucky and you always need luck when signing players, we will bring in some real quality who will complement the young players that have done well for us in the Ryman Premier, let alone Division One.”

The Chairman was unable to confirm which members of the existing squad will be leaving the Club as discussions and negotiations with players are well underway.

No player has left the Buzzlines Stadium at the present time.

He said: “There are players we wish to retain and we have approached them and some are thinking about the deals on the table. There are a few players we haven’t offered deals to but we want to get the situation clarified first with who’s staying.”

In addition to the changes on the playing side Cugley has expressed his desire to add to the management team at Cheriton Road.

Mr Wallis explained: “It’s Neil’s wish to have an assistant manager in place to help him and as a Board we will support anyone he does want to bring in.

“I think he needs someone that will take the place of Mark Saunders and I hope that will be a non playing person who will specifically help him with the coaching.”

The chairman reinforced Cugley’s comments earlier in the week that the Club needs to be less reliant on the loan system if they are to ensure a stable squad which is capable of challenging for promotion next season.

He said: “I only want to see loan players come in possibly for a full season or because of suspension or injuries. I don’t want a constant flow of loan players coming in because it can be very disruptive and Neil shares these views and it is something we are keen to address for next season so we get the stability we so desperately need to get promoted again.”

So what are the aspirations of the Football Club for the forthcoming season?

The Chairman added: “Football fans are very fickle but if we can be there or thereabouts at the top then people will come back and watch us and at the end of the day we need to produce winning football to achieve that.

“I want the beautiful game as much as anyone but I’d rather see the results than play pretty football and lose. We’re going down a league and having seen what I’ve seen in that league it’s not going to be pretty and there is going to be pitches that aren’t good which we aren’t used to so pretty football may not be possible.

“I’ve found the last seven days very difficult to come to terms with but relegation has happened, we’ve got to come to terms with it and last night the Board were united in doing everything we possibly can to get a smile on people’s faces this time next year.”

Article courtesy of www.folkestoneinvicta.co.uk