We need to sort out our budget for next year, says Folkestone Invicta boss Neil Cugley

FOLKESTONE INVICTA boss Neil Cugley says he will need to sit down with club officials and work out a budget which will keep his side competitive next season.


The Cheriton Road outfit finished their 40-match Ryman League Division One South campaign in fourth-place, but they suffered a 2-1 defeat away to Dulwich Hamlet in the play-offs on Tuesday night and Gavin Rose’s side will now travel to runners-up Bognor Regis Town to contest the final on Sunday afternoon to see which club will be playing Ryman Premier League football next season.

Two years ago, Invicta clinched promotion with Croydon Athletic via the play-offs, following home wins over Leatherhead and Godalming Town, but they came straight back down after finishing a miserable campaign at the foot of the Ryman Premier League table.

Cugley was a bitterly disappointed figure following his side’s poor performance at Champion Hill on Tuesday, as Stuart King’s 27^th goal of the season with five minutes remaining being too little too late for the Seasiders.

Cugley said: “Being realistic we don’t have the finances to be in the other league, but it doesn’t stop me wanting to be in the (Ryman Premier) League.

“It’s something to build on.  We’re still a young side. If we can keep most of them together hopefully they’ll learn from the game on Tuesday night.”

When asked how his squad is shaping up with next season in mind, Cugley replied, “We’ve signed nine on already for next year, so I’m quite pleased with that.  I’ve got to try and get a couple in to liven it up.  It’s only just tinkering with it and then we’ll go from there. 

“We’ve got to check a couple of things and have a look around and try to get a couple in but we haven’t got a chairman at the moment so it’s a bit hard.

“We need to sort out a little bit of a budget to see what we’ve got.  What we don’t want to do is fall behind other teams with the sense of what they’re paying and we can’t get anywhere near them and we just drift along.  That’s the only thing we don’t want to do.

“Some way you hope the budget is a little bit more, just to push on.”

Champions Whitehawk, Bognor Regis and Dulwich Hamlet have been the three best sides in the division this season and with two of those sides going up, Cugley feels his side have a chance of success, especially as there’s speculation that one big rival (Maidstone United) could switch to Ryman League Division One North.

He said: “To be fair this year the top three have been good sides.  Obviously two will go out and there’s talk another one will go out to another section so it might not be quite as strong next year.  It could be a really important year for us and teams like that.”

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