Invicta’s pre-season preparations continued on Tuesday evening as a Tom Derry hat-trick plus a strike from Dan Smith saw Andy Drury’s side run out 4-0 winners of SCEFL side Whitstable Town.

Academy goalkeeper Dan Kennedy continued in goal having played 90 minutes on Saturday at Sheppey United, with Gavin Hoyte, Ian Gayle and Frankie Morgan all given their first start of the summer in front of him with Joel-Michael Odeniran in defence.

Dean Rance and Matt Young lined up alongside a trialist in midfield, while Evans Kouassi and Dan Smith were also handed their first starts, with Tom Derry in attack.

Derry signalled his intent for the evening in the 8th minute with a move he started, releasing Kouassi on the right before racing into the box to get onto a ball from Smith, forcing the first saved of the evening from the Whitstable goalkeeper.

It didn’t take long for Invicta’s frontman to break the deadlock, heading home from the resulting corner, a looping header from 10 yards that dropped under the crossbar.

Invicta continued to press, Smith forcing a routine stop with a left footed effort on 17 minutes, Derry forcing a block 5 minutes later.

In the 24th minute Invicta did double the advantage with Smith’s second goal of the summer. A ball from Rance was headed clear as far as Kouassi who teased his defender before releasing trialist who had made an overlapping run. A pass inside found Smith who showed impressive footwork to control the ball and fire home a low effort to add to his strike at Sheppey on Saturday.

Kouassi continued to torment defenders, bringing down a diagonal ball before cutting inside and unleashing a low effort on 32 minutes that the keeper got down to save.

Invicta ended the first half with a series of corners, Tom Derry seeing one shot blocked and one header wide.

Drury made just one change at the break, replacing one trialist with another in midfield.

8 minutes into the second half Kouassi cut inside from the left again, this time seeing his shot blocked.

Whitstable forced a first save of the evening from Kennedy shortly before the hour mark, no. 8 firing a bouncing ball straight at the young keeper.

Young defender Joel-Michael Odeniran was replaced by Chris Sessegnon just after the hour mark.

Derry added to his tally on 68 minutes, Kouassi released down the left by Young before showing more fancy footwork to twist and turn his defender before delivering a ball to the back post that Invicta’s no. 9 headed home.

Drury turned to his bench immediately after the 3rd goal: Under 18 players Ashton Mitford, Josh O’Brien and Sam Grant as well as Brad Walledge and a trialist replaced Smith, Kouassi, Hoyte, Rance and Kennedy for the final 22 minutes.

With time ticking away, Derry was given the opportunity to complete his hat-trick from the penalty spot. Matt Young fed a ball between right back and centre half that Mitford raced onto, evading the fullback before being brought down by a second challenge. Derry sent the substitute goalkeeper the wrong way from the spot.

The referee promptly blew the final whistle on 90 minutes with Invicta now 2 wins from 2 this summer, heading to Homelands on Saturday to continue our pre-season preparations against Ashford United.