Defender Finn O’Mara – such a hit with Folkestone Invicta fans earlier this season – is back again on loan with the club and in the squad for their game against Wingate & Finchley in North London tomorrow.
The 18-year-old Gillingham player impressed in a nine game spell at Folkestone – ending on the winning side in all of them! – and is now back at The Fullicks Stadium until January 6th.
Manager Neil Cugley said: “We told them that we’d be pleased to have him back at any time and we heard that Steve Lovell doesn’t need him for their first team squad at the moment but wants the lad to get some games in and he’ll be with us tomorrow.
“As it happens Callum (Davies) has got a little bit of a niggle in his groin so it does give us options. JV’s away this weekend but we’ve got cover at right back with Ryan Cooper, but all in all, with such a strong squad of 16/17 players we’re in probably as good a position as we’ve ever been going into Christmas and the New Year.”
O’Mara thus becomes Folkestone’s second loan signing in a matter of days, following the capture of striker Johan Ter Horst for four weeks at least from Maidstone earlier in the week.
And a look at the form of tomorrow’s opponents, Wingate & Finchley, suggests that Cugley’s men are in for as tough a game as they have faced for some time if they’re going to extend their winning run in the league to nine games, which may well be a club record at Premier Division level.
Keith Rowland’s Wingate side have lost only once in the league at the Maurice Rebak Stadium this season – that a 3-1 reverse at the hands of north London rivals Harrow Borough in the opening week of the season.
For the record, our former player Anthony O’Connor scored the Borough’s third goal that day to seal victory for the visitors.
That game was one of just two defeats in front of their own fans that the Finchley-based side have suffered – the other coming in an FA Cup replay against ambitious National League South outfit Hemel Hempstead Town on November 19th.
Like Invicta, Wingate have yet to face either of the top two sides in the table, home or away – Dulwich and Billericay – though they did trounce Staines, who are currently just one place below Folkestone at fourth in the table, winning 5-0 away at Wheatsheaf Lane on August Bank Holiday Monday.
(Come to think of it, we recall that Staines’ fans we still moaning about that performance when Invicta beat The Swans 2-0 at the Fullicks Stadium a couple of weeks later!)
Invicta’s own fans still recall with horror their only previous visit to the Summers Lane ground last Valentines Day night when their side was leading 2-1 with just five minutes to go, thanks to a couple of goals from Ian Draycott, but the home side hit back to take all three points thanks to late, late goals from Reece Beckles and Rob Laney.
And, if Folkestone needed any warning that manager Rowland’s side pride themselves on their never-say-die spirit, they’ve found the net a couple of times in recent matches when victory looked like eluding them.
In a recent home clash with Brightlingsea Regent, it needed a stoppage time strike from another former Folkestone players, Ben Pattie to secure a 2-1 win.
And, a recently as Tuesday this week, Sittingbourne were leading 2-1 with six minutes to go and looking on their way to a league cup win over their Premier Division hosts before more late goals from Beckles and Olabi Obafemi took Wingate through to the next round of the Velocity Trophy.
Hearing that, Invicta manager Neil Cugley said: “Keith Rowland knows what he’s doing and I’ve heard that they’re a pretty fit side. But so are we these days, and we’ve won two or three games late in the day in the last month or so.
“I’m really looking forward to this one.”
Wingate and Finchley are currently 11th in the table, but their home form has to be respected and six wins out of seven home league games puts them fourth in the home form guide behind Folkestone, Dulwich and Billericay – all of which adds up to what could and should prove a very interesting afternoon.