Folkestone Invicta 0-2 Tonbridge Angels

Folkestone Invicta suffered a third successive home defeat when they went down 2-0 against fellow Kent side Tonbridge Angels in front of a 474 crowd in the Ryman Premier League at the Buzzlines Stadium on Boxing Day afternoon.

Fraser Logan opened the scoring for the visitors in the 42nd minute and Nick Barnes made it 2-0 after 62 minutes.

Invicta went into the game without injured trio Adam Flanagan, Paul Jones and Ellis Remy, with James Corbett coming back into the starting line up alongside Damian Abel in attack and Liam Friend starting on the left hand side of the defence, with Paul Lamb alongside Kevin Watson and Samuel Kola Okikiolu at the heart of the defence.

Tonbridge won the game’s first corner in the seventh minute when leading goalscorer Jon Main shrugged off Okikiolu and hit a spectacular strike which had goalkeeper Tony Kessell back-peddling before he got up to make a save.

Invicta were close themselves a minute later when 19-year-old Ben Sly ran at the Tonbridge defence and shot just wide of the post from outside the penalty area.

Logan fired over from the edge of the box for Tonbridge after ten minutes when Main touched the ball into his path and Barnes shot over from the edge of the penalty area on the quarter of an hour mark when Anthony Storey played the ball up to Main on the right hand edge of the box.

For Invicta, captain Micheal Everitt sent in a dangerous cross from the right hand flank after 19 minutes and Sly hit a dipping shot over the bar from outside the penalty area four minutes later when he dispossessed Robbie Kember.

James Everitt then did well down the right hand side and put in a dangerous low cross after 27 minutes.  

Tonbridge threatened again when Kessell came out to save from Logan after a ball over the Invicta defence in the 35th minute and Michael Power shot wide with the chance of the game thus far a minute later when a defensive clearance was charged down.

Corbett tried his luck with a chip over the crossbar from just outside the penalty area after 39 minutes.

But Tonbridge went ahead just before half time when LOGAN turned the ball in at the far post from Main’s right wing cross after Power had played the ball out wide.

And BARNES made it 2-0 after the interval when he tapped the ball in from virtually on the goal line after Power and Main had combined to dink the ball over to him and over Kessell from the right hand side of the penalty area.

Main shot into the side netting after 67 minutes when Logan played him in down the left hand channel of the penalty area.  

Invicta struggled to make in-roads during the second half and Tonbridge’s Barnes shot wide from outside the penalty box after 88 minutes.

There were bookings for Invicta’s Sly and for Tonbridge’s Scott Gooding and Kember.

FOLKESTONE INVICTA: Kessell, Watson, Lamb, Okikiolu, Friend, J. Everitt, M. Everitt, Abel, Corbett, Saunders, Sly (Neilson 64 mins).  Unused subs: Chandler, Guiver, Rainbow, Stonebridge.

TONBRIDGE ANGELS: Kerr, Powell, Gooding, Kember (Parkes 90 mins), Aris, Beales, Barnes, Storey, Power (Maxwell 83 mins), Main (Piscina 90 mins), Logan. Unused subs: Green, Martin.