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Invicta followed up their 6-0 thrashing of Chatham Town last Tuesday with a hard fought victory away at Walton Casuals (1-0) on Saturday although manager Neil Cugley was left frustrated last night in the League Cup with his side not extending a winning streak.

Darren Smith made his debut yesterday on his return to the Club after signing from Chatham Town with a view to a longer term deal once the Club’s financial situation has been steadied.

Smithy got a nasty kick on his elbow during the first half and whilst initial fears centred over a collar bone injury, the versatile midfielder was left with a bloody arm and he should be fit for the weekend clash with Fleet Town.

Speaking about Darren signing, Cugley remarked, “He’ll hopefully give us a bit more quality in midfield and he’s one of those players who can get the ball down. He can play in a lot of positions; midfield, full back, up front and with a squad of our size that versatility is important. With Jimmy Jackson away this weekend at a wedding – something we have known about for a while – and with such a tiny squad I felt we needed another player.

“He’s (Smith) best mates with Scott Lindsey and lives just up the road from him and I think he feels, like I do, that Folkestone is a bigger club than Chatham and that’s no disrespect to them but once we get the finances sorted out we can kick on again.

“He knows the situation with finances and to be fair to him he has taken a risk. It’s a very difficult time when you try to sign players but he wants to come down to us. After we played Chatham last week he was impressed with how we played football.”

Last night’s defeat was at the hands of Essex based outfit Tilbury, who play in the ‘Northern’ half of Ryman Division One which leaves Invicta focusing their attentions on the League and the Kent Senior Cup.

“I keep saying it’ll be a roller coaster ride and not even in the sense of game to game but half to half which is really frustrating for me and Scott (Lindsey). First half last night I thought we were terrible. Tilbury to be fair got two very good goals and caused us problems. Second half we came out and we changed our system a little bit and we were excellent but we can’t keep going from good to bad so quickly and it’s something we must learn from.

“Scott is very involved at the Club and I let him get involved last night. I picked the team but I let him get more involved in what we’re doing and I think he saw the other side and what it’s like being a manager and how frustrating it can be. It was a chance to show what he’s about and it meant a lot to him and he was obviously disappointed with the result.

“It may only be the League Cup and perhaps it may have been worse if it was the Kent Senior or the League but you still want to win games. When you win two you want to make it three and keep a run going. I felt if we’d got the equaliser, even at the end, we would have gone on and won it in extra time.

“But we missed so many clear chances and you can’t be missing those and it must have been at least half a dozen and it was poor finishing”.

At the weekend it was loan signing Tayler Thomas who sealed victory with an emphatic strike after being put through by Jimmy Dryden after just seven minutes.

“That was a good three points but even up there I didn’t think we played that well. Maybe it’s my old age but we’re a lot better than that and I’m expecting more. We started ever so well, looked a really good side but by the end we were defending and never really looked like scoring a second and I was disappointed.

“It’s consistency we’re after now from our young players and that’s what we have to keep plugging away for. If players can’t be consistent then they’re not going to be good enough for this standard. We’re not saying to play really well week in week out, but bad one week and good the next isn’t enough and there needs to be that medium which your Jackson’s and Mitten’s show.”

This weekend sees Fleet Town visit the Buzzlines Stadium, a side who Cugley fancied at the beginning of the season as a strong promotion candidate. From sitting around the mid table mark a few months ago, Fleet have crept up the League and are only four points off the leaders Kingstonian who realistically, Invicta are still very much in touch with – underlining how crucial three points were last weekend.

“They’re on form at the moment and we’ve got a tough December and January. Worthing coming down isn’t far away for instance and I’m amazed Ashford are so low in the table as they are a good side and Sittingbourne aren’t doing too badly either.

“It’ll show whether these lads can do it week in week out for us and whether we can get more consistency out of them individually and out of the team. The tough run coming up will show what they’re made of. We hope things aren’t going to be difficult at Folkestone for too long so if these young lads come in now and do well then you’re not looking for people in their places at a later date when we can do that”.

Josh Burchell (calf) will face a late fitness test and it has been confirmed Billy Shadow will be sidelined for around three weeks. Initial x-rays confirmed no breakages after being on the end of a crunching tackle on his debut, but further tests after the bruising had eased have revealed some ligament damage.

Simon Rainbow has been back at the Club for about a month now and he was joined last week by young striker Joe Neilson; both players returning from neighbours Hythe Town.

“Simon is a good asset for the Club and Joe was a bit disillusioned at Hythe and could do alright for us and he just wants to play and he’s willing to give it a go – he came on Saturday and was very lively, got a goal last night so there’s something to think about for Saturday.”