On Saturday, Folkestone Invicta’s near neighbours Dover Athletic pay a visit for their last pre-season game of the season.

Last season, Dover Athletic finished 11^th in the Vanarama National League, a position which was decided by the infamous Points Per Game (PPG), but since then the club has faced a real crisis and at one time the survival of the club seemed in doubt with it possibly having to cease trading at the end of August.

At the start of the month, Chairman Jim Parmeter announced that the Board had been assessing the financial  position and the club’s players and staff were asked to take a 20% pay cut. Whilst their management accepted the situation, the players didn’t and so as an initial step the entire squad was put on the transfer list.

A number of the players have since left, indeed two of them, Connor Essam (who has now signed for Dartford) and Nassim L’Ghoul, played for Invicta in our first friendly against Ramsgate, which is ironically the only one we’ve lost so far!

Also, amongst those that have left are goalkeeper/coach Lee Worgan (who has joined Chelmsford City), defender and Captain Kevin Lokko (Harrogate Town), defender/midfielder Bobby-Joe Taylor (Ebbsfleet United), midfielder Michael Woods, winger Ricky Modeste (Dartford) and forward Inih Effiong (Stevenage).

However, whilst other players may leave, in Andy Hesenthaler, Dover Athletic have a Manager with excellent contacts and knowledge and he’ll do his best to build a competitive team with the remaining players plus those he brings in.

To that end he has already added Folkestone born goalkeeper Josh Bexon who was with Invicta until the age of 15 when he signed for Southend United and he did of course play against us in an Isthmian League Premier Division game two seasons ago for Harlow Town whilst on loan from the Essex club, left back Sam Wood from Bromley who has been appointed Captain for this season, former Gillingham midfielder TJ Bramble, strikers Louis Collins from Sevenoaks Town and Ahkeem Rose from Grimsby Town, as well as getting Academy graduate Marshall Wratten to commit for the forthcoming season.  

As we’ve seen in the past at Invicta when we had financial issues, the fans rallied round and did a fantastic fund-raising job to help out and the Dover Athletic supporters are no different raising over £10,000 so far with their various initiatives.

One a bit more imaginative than many was journalistic legend Mark Winter’s ‘Rivals Tour’ which has seen them walk to Deal, Ramsgate, Folkestone and Hythe on various dates. In a show of solidarity, a number of Invicta supporters joined then on the Dover to Folkestone leg as per the picture below. A great effort and we wish them well with their other events they have organised.

Back to the football and so far they’ve only played three pre-season games as the Vanarama National League season isn’t due to start until Saturday 3^rd October when in their first game they entertain last season’s losing Play-off Finalists, Notts County at Crabble.

Firstly, they won 1-0 at Hythe Town last Tuesday and then on Saturday they won 3-2 in an exciting game at Margate. The only goal at Reachfields came on the half-hour mark as was scored by one of the nine trialists that started the game, whilst at Margate they had a more settled side with Josh Passley, Will De Havilland, Joe Bedford, Steven Rigg and Jack Munns from last season’s squad all playing along with new signings Bexon, Bramble and Wood.

Rigg gave Dover Athletic the lead, but with fifteen minutes to go they found themselves 2-1 down, only for ‘Trialist’ to score two goals in the last five minutes to clinch victory. Then on Tuesday in their latest outing they went down 3-1 at Herne Bay. 

Looking ahead to the game, Neil Cugley said; “I’m looking forward to a good test, as although they’ve had their troubles, I’m sure they’ll have a good squad as they’ve got three good people in their Management team who all know the football scene well.

“They may be a bit behind us in terms of fitness as we’ve played nine games and our season starts next week, whereas they’ve only played three and have still got three weeks until their season starts.” Turning to the squad for Saturday, Neil added;

“After picking up an injury last week, Matt Newman is waiting to have a scan, but he’s currently waiting for the swelling and bruising to go down first, but apart from that everyone else should be available.”   

We played Dover Athletic last pre-season and in an entertaining game went down 3-2. Jerson Dos Santos gave Invicta the lead after eighteen minutes, but it was short-lived as within three minutes Kevin Lokko had put our opponents on level terms.

The score remained 1-1 going into the break, but, playing with virtually a different team in the second half, Dover Athletic took the lead four minutes into the second half with a goal from Inih Effiong before Callum Davies made it 2-2. Just as it looked as if that was how the game was going to finish, Ricky Modeste popped up with the winner nine minutes from time.     

The teams that afternoon were;

Folkestone Invicta; Tim Roberts, Finn O’Mara, Nat Blanks (Brad Baker, 88 mins), Charlie Dickens, Callum Davies (Capt), Micheal Everitt (Madden, 60 mins) Scott Heard (Kane Roberts, 82 mins), Kieron McCann (Trialist 1, 63 mins), Jerson Dos Santos (Morgan, 72 mins), Ira Jackson (Alfie Paxman, 46 mins) & Johan Ter Horst (Trialist 2, 70 mins), (sub not used; Jordan Small).

Dover Athletic (First Half); Yusif Mersin, Scott Doe, Kevin Lokko (Capt), Trialist, Josh Passley, Paul Rooney, Jack Munns, Kurtis Camberbatch, Jai Reason, Alfie Pavey & Steven Rigg.

Dover Athletic (Second Half); Lee Worgan, Josh Passley (Trialist, 68 mins), Will De Havilland, Kevin Lokko (Trialist, 68 mins), Bobby-Joe Taylor, Michael Woods, Oscar Gobern, Nassim L’Ghoul, Ricky Modeste, Inih Effiong & Trialist.

Folkestone Invicta’s Pre-Season Fixtures and Results