Neighbours edge pre-season derby

In an entertaining and hard fought local derby, Dover Athletic registered a 3-2 victory in front of 566 spectators. 

Invicta made the faster start and in the first five minutes, Kieron McCann was unlucky to see his shot cleared off the line by Dover Athletic skipper Kevin Lokko after he had rounded goalkeeper Yusif Mersin. Jerson Dos Santos then sprang the Dover offside trap but he delayed his shot which allowed the defence to get back and clear the danger and Ira Jackson had three efforts charged down in quick succession, before Dos Santos put Invicta ahead after 18 minutes when he cut in from the right and shot past Mersin from the edge of the area.

This seemed to spark our opponents into action and within three minutes they were level. Tim Roberts made a decent save from an Alfie Pavey header, but from the resultant Jack Munns’ corner, Lokko rose unchallenged to send a powerful header past Roberts for the equaliser. Invicta then went close again as firstly Mersin got down well to save from Johan Ter Horst and he followed that up by tipping a Finn O’Mara header over the bar. O’Mara was also involved at the other end of the pitch as Tim Roberts misjudged Jai Reason’s free kick and he was in the right place to clear Scott Doe’s header off the line. There was just one further chance in the half and Alfie Pavey really should have scored as he latched onto Micheal Everitt’s back pass, but shot wide having gone round goalkeeper Roberts, to leave the score level at 1-1 at the interval.

Dover Athletic played a virtually different team in the second half and although substitute Alfie Paxman but a shot wide for the home side, our opponents took a 2-1 lead four minutes after the break when Inih Effiong was put through by Oscar Gobern and he slipped the ball past the advancing Roberts. Bobby-Joe Taylor then had two good efforts, the first from a free kick which Roberts tipped over, and then he shot just wide. Will De Havilland also went close but he just failed to connect with a Gobern cross.

Just as it looked as if Dover were taking control of the game, Invicta got a corner from which skipper Callum Davies scored with a diving header to level matters at 2-2. After that the substitutions started to disrupt the flow of the game and it looked like it was going to end in stalemate, however on 81 minutes, Ricky Modest ran onto Effiong’s through ball and rounded Roberts before slotting the ball home for the winning goal which gave our opponents their second win in two games.

Although the result didn’t go our way, Manager Neil Cugley was satisfied with the performance saying; “I thought it was an outstanding game and it was great to see so many turn up for a pre-season game, I thought we were excellent in the first half with excellent fitness levels, against don’t forget a team that are full-time although it got a bit disjointed in the second half with the number of substitutions.” He then added; “There seems to be a very positive attitude around the club at the moment and hopefully we can push on. It was great to see Dom Castle come over today after what he has recently done for the club in donating all the playing kit for this season. I’m delighted to say that I recently received another donation from a supporter and I’m hoping for some more positive news soon.”

Dover Athletic Manager, Andy Hessenthaler, agreed with Neil’s thoughts on the game saying; “It was a perfect friendly for us today, I always find coming to Folkestone a good test, whether it was with Gillingham or now Dover. The pitch is always good and we had a good competitive game which was what we needed and I was pleased to get a result.”       

Today’s Teams;

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.

Richard’s more detailed report will appear in the Match Centre soon, and he’ll probably have all the substitute times correct too!!

Many thanks to everyone who came along and supported their respective team today, an attendance of over 500 is impressive for a pre-season game.

Don’t forget we are at home again on Tuesday, kick-off 7:45pm, when in another attractive pre-season game, Maidstone United visit the Fullick’s Stadium.

 ‘Jerson Dos Santos receives his Man of the Match award from one of Dom Castle’s party’.