Folkestone Invicta are the Isthmian League Champions but boss Jay Saunders isn’t yet completely satisfied and his players know it…

Wins over St Albans City and Ramsgate across the Easter weekend were enough for Invicta to become a National League side for the very first time which when you consider that it was Saunders first season at the club and because of pitch improvements they didn’t actually play a “proper” home game until mid-October… by that time they were challenging Brentwood at the top and since have left them and all other challengers behind and were crowned League Champions on Easter Monday with three games to play.

Before the first of those – away to Whitehawk on Saturday, we caught up with Saunders at home and he told us, “In the end to win it the way we did was just about prefect, I think! To go away to St Albans with all that support was just about perfect and then to come home on Monday, massive crowd, lovely weather – what could you ask better; as someone else said to me, if Carlsberg did weekends it was right up there!”

“For me I really wanted to enjoy what we have achieved here. When I look back on my Maidstone days, there wasn’t the enjoyment – maybe not the right word – but you are so caught up in everything, the interviews and pleasing everyone else, you don’t stand back and enjoy it yourself.

“So, I promised myself and told my management team (Lloyd Blackman and Tom Parkinson) that if and when we do it, make sure you soak up every single minute as seasons like this don’t come along very often!

“You really have to enjoy it, and it was great to have my family there and everything! My youngest son didn’t get to see me win anything at Maidstone was at St Albans which was brilliant and really emotional for us – it was an unbelievable day at St Albans, and I think summed up what we have been about all season.”

“It was a weird afternoon as everyone kept saying you’ve won it, you’ve won it, you’ve won it, but until it is done it really does feel like it’s never coming and it was an amazing emotional day!”

“It’s been difficult because until its mathematically done there’s still a chance for others. We kept on at the boys, not allowing them to talk about promotion with the next game almost the most important. Grounded I think you could say the management team were. Even when others were dropping points and you were feeling in, deep down we knew we had to keep doing the job!

“The boys have been top of the table since November and that brings different pressures! When Brentwood were being chased down with us playing “away” every week at Chatham, Ashford, Margate we just kept chipping away. When we eventually went top and being chased it’s a completely different form of pressure it really is!”

“I can’t give the boys enough praise, to turn up every week and keep doing it – they tried to tell us we had a blip over Christmas, but we had seven first choicer out! It may have been a blip but all season in thirty-nine games we have lost four! And when we played “away” from Folkestone until mid-October you cannot give anything but credit!”

“The boys have been so professional and that’s what I said when our skipper Kevin Lokko got the goal at St Albans that won us promotion – he sums up what our squad is all about! He was my first signing when I joined the club and the Chairman and I both wanted his, so it was kind of meant to be. We met him and it all lined up.

“I told him that I’d joined the club to win promotion, and he agreed and I told him he’d be captain and I needed him to lead and he’s done exactly that and has been a pleasure to work with on and off the pitch.

“He sums up the squad – we have an unbelievable group of players in this squad, and I have to mention Dean Rance too. He broke his leg unfortunately and is my vice-captain – he was already at Folkestone when I joined and I said to the pair of them, “you’re my captain, you’re my vice!” and I need you boys to lead the dressing room and boy have they done that!

“And you know I do believe that if we had had Rancey fit for the whole season, we would have won it sooner! The pair of them have led the dressing room perfectly and you need that. Where I’ve had success at previous Clubs, I’ve had that and these two are top, top guys!”

Three games left for Invicta – nine points off one hundred points and six goals from one hundred League goals… now wouldn’t that be the cherry on the icing of this amazing success story!