Strikers Ade Yusuff and Ian Draycott will both have fitness tests but are expected to make the starting line-up for Invicta who entertain Staines Town at the Fullicks Stadium tomorrow.
Draycott was taken off after an hour of last weekend’s FA Cup win over Greenwich Borough with a tight hamstring and Yusuff picked up a similar injury when he raced and stretched to reach a throughball on the wet turf at Reachfields during Folkestone’s county cup win over Hythe in midweek.
Manager Neil Cugley said: “I think they should both be okay and at least one of them will be fit enough to start alongside Joe Taylor against Staines.”
Kwabs Osei was also withdrawn with cramp at Hythe but is expected to be included in the squad, as will Josh Vincent who was rested in midweek.
Only Matt Newman (knee/calf) is almost certainly out.
Like Invicta, Staines have made a decent start to the 2017/18 campaign, though they went out of the FA Cup last weekend when they went down to a 3-2 defeat away to relatively close neighbours Met Police.
In the league, the seventh-placed Swans have eight points from five games – as do Folkestone, who are four places lower at 11th – each with two wins, two draws and one defeat so far.
They began the season with a more than creditable 1-1 draw at Dulwich Hamlet where their goal came from the former Harrow Borough striker Lewis Driver.
And Johnson Hippolyte’s team followed that with big home wins over Tooting & Mitcham (6-0) and Kingstonian (5-0) in which strikers Mo Bettamer and Elliott Buchanan each scored three times.
There followed a 1-1 draw with Dorking Wanderers at Westhumble but Town came crashing down to earth when they welcomed Wingate & Finchley to Wheatsheaf Park on Bank Holiday Monday where the visitors romped to a five goal victory without reply!
“Staines are another good club, with a good manager who knows where to find players in what is a catchment area that we can only envy” said Invicta boss Cugley.
“But I’ve been pleased with the way we’ve been playing so far this season and it ought to be another good game. We’ve had them watched and know, pretty much to expect, though I’ve no doubt they’ve had a look at us too, and feel the same way.”
With heavy showers forecast for Friday afternoon the pitch at the Fullicks Stadium could be in for a soaking, but Neil said that’s an added bonus.
“Our players like a bit of give in the ground and the surface may well produce some lively football tomorrow” he said.
For Tuesday’s Kent Senior Cup second round home tie with Greenwich Borough, Cugs is expected to ring the changes once again, as he did at Hythe.
“That’s taken priority over the league game with Leatherhead but along with the League Cup tie at VCD the following Tuesday, it gives our squad players another chance to get some game time in. It’s so much better than having them sitting around on the bench all the time.”
That may not include Ronnie Dolan however, who felt some pain from the ankle injury that has kept him out of football for eight months.
“For someone who’d been out that long, I felt he had an excellent game (at Hythe).
“But if the ankle’s still hurting I think he should go ahead with the operation that’s booked for next week to try to clear the problem up completely.
“Ronnie did enough on Tuesday to show just how much we’ve missed him and he remains very much an important player at this club.”