Things are bad, but not as bad as they were, admits Folkestone Invicta boss Neil Cugley

NEIL CUGLEY was still in great heart today after pulling out the stops to help Folkestone Invicta through their latest financial difficulty.


The long-serving manager is an old hand at helping cope with crises over the years and told www.folkestoneinvicta.co.uk : “This is nowhere like as bad as some of the situations we’ve been in.

“Things are bad, but not as bad as they were” – referring back to a situation some three or four years ago when the club was forced to invoke a pay-freeze lasting several months which led to almost half a team of experienced players leaving Cheriton Road.

"The latest problem stems from a £12,000 tax bill carried forward from last season - a bill that chairman Mr Mark Jenner says he was unaware of when he took over the reins during the summer.

But he has already forked out £4,000 of his own cash and arranged that the club pays the rest at £1,000 per month between now and April – that’s on top of the existing £800 per month under the CVA arrangement with HMC&R.

Three experienced players (Lee Gledhill, Darren Marsden and James Everitt) have been allowed to leave the club in the last month – admittedly not entirely because of financial reasons - but, manager Cugley believes that he now has matters under control.

And while the chairman says there’s no money to replace the three who have left, the manager is confident that the lads who have been brought in can still help the longer-serving players to take the club into the play-off positions by the end of the season.

“Don’t forget we’ve still got seven of the players who virtually won the league for us a couple of seasons ago” said Cugley.

Reflecting on what he admits has been a difficult week, Cugley said: “Yes, it’s been hard, but I think I’m on top of what I wanted to do.”

His priority was to get a grip on the wages and he said: “The worst thing you can have is when players are owed money, but that is being sorted.

“We want to get the club out of debt by the end of the season, and we’ve all got to be grateful that Mark Jenner is here to help us achieve that.”

There has been criticism from some fans over the departure of contracted players like Marsden and Everitt, who have joined Faversham Town and Hythe Town respectively, but when asked if any more players will be leaving, the manager said: “We can’t see any reason that we’ll have to let that happen. We’ve got 11 paid players backed up by the young lads who’ve recently come into the squad and done so well.

“We’re not in a position that we’re going to have to let players go like we did before. There were a couple who might have gone, but I’ve spoken to them and they’re happy to stay. The players have been brilliant.”

And, despite rumours, Cugley says there have been no approaches from other clubs about any of his players.

On the field, Folkestone bid to end a poor run of results that have most definitely not reflected recent performances – highlighted by last weekend’s eventual 2-1 defeat at Horsham where they were denied an early goal when Richard Atkins’ header was well over the goal-line but not given.

“There must have been half a dozen decisions we didn’t get that affected the game – the referee got all the big decisions wrong as far as we were concerned.”

On Saturday, Invicta make the fairly short trip to Herne Bay for an 1pm kick-off because of problems with the floodlight’s at Winch’s Field.

Josh Burchell will have a late check on the ankle injury that kept him out for several weeks while Josh Vincent – who made a late return from long-term injury as a substitute at Horsham – should again be at least on the bench.

Youth team striker Johan Ter Horst may also be included in a possible 16-man squad.

Meanwhile, former Folkestone Invicta striker James Dryden has left Hythe Town to sign for Whitstable Town.

Article courtesy of www.folkestoneinvicta.co.uk

Herne Bay  v  Folkestone Invicta
Ryman League Division One South
Saturday 10^th November 2012
Kick Off 1:00pm
at Winch’s Field, Stanley Gardens, Herne Bay, Kent CT6 5SG