Folkestone Invicta head into their Isuzu FA Trophy second round tie at Cheriton Road this weekend with National League AFC Totton in terrific form sitting top of the Isthmian Premier Division. 

Tuesday’s eight-one thrashing of Cray Wanderers cemented Jay Saunders’s side place at the top of the table ahead of Brentwood Town as Cheriton Road saw another goal fest after the clubs return home when their new 4g playing surface was finished. 

Speaking to KSN ahead of the weekend, Saunders told us, “We have already beaten Maidstone and Horsham from Totton’s League in the cup this season and it’s another test for us. Totton will be very different as they are big, very organised, experienced and we are a very young squad so it will be a good test for the young lads who what to go and play higher in the pyramid – we’ve trained hard this week and hopefully we will get another win!” 

“We want to win every game we play in, but we will rotate the squad!” 

“We did it in the last round against Burgess Hill, I think we made eight changes; don’t think that there will be that many this time, but we must manage our squad.  

“We have literally sixteen or seventeen players and we can’t play every week, and we are Saturday Tuesday near enough every week until mid-December. That said we have been for a good few weeks so we must manage their minutes so we will make changes. We will still put out a side that we hope can go out and cause an upset!” 

Reflecting on the midweek win, the Invicta boss said, “Those sorts of results and nights don’t come along very often so you have to enjoy them, but it is really important that we don’t get carried away with it and that’s what we said to the boys straight afterwards; it’s onto the next training session and onto the next game.” 

“I have said all along this season that we have goals in us and I think we are averaging three a game at the moment, but the down side were that we were conceding silly goals, but touch wood we have improved that now over the last few games and hopefully we can keep that going! It was a night for us where everything clicked, and everything went in!  

“You get days like that – I have played in them; I have managed in them and I have had games where you are on the other side of them too – sometimes it happens and that’s why I say that we will enjoy it but at the same time, you still only get three points and what we have to make sure is that we keep doing what we are doing, keep working hard on the training ground and every game if we do that then hopefully we will have a good season, but there is still a long, long way to go and there are a lot of good teams in the Isthmian Premier as you saw when we lost to Hashtag who are near the bottom – anyone beats anyone in the League and we have to concentrate nine times out of ten to be at our best.” 

The work on the Cheriton Road pitch was completed in time for their recent home game with Dulwich Hamlet and Saunders is delighted with what met his side. “It’s brilliant,” he enthused. 

“The crowds have gone up, they have seen plenty of goals which is good and hopefully entertaining football. There was nearly twelve hundred there on Tuesday which was brilliant – I think the supporters are enjoying it as are the players playing in front of them. It’s been great to be back home!”