Goals from a trialist and Jake Hutchinson saw Invicta lead twice at Ashford on Tuesday evening, but a Sam Hasler free kick and a Gary Lockyer penalty at the other end saw the score end level on a feisty evening at Homelands, Invicta finishing with ten men.

Jay Saunders shuffled his side, Hutchinson selected to lead the line for Invicta, with Ade Yusuff having played a full 90 minutes on Saturday and Josh Strouts away for his university graduation (congratulations, Josh!). Mikey Berry, Montel McKenzie and Joel-Michael Odeniran were amongst those coming into the side from the weekend, along with some new trialists.

Jake Hutchinson forced the first save of the evening from Ashford goalkeeper Harvey Earle, before a double-save from Jeremy Santos and “trialist 2” to keep the score at 0-0 in the opening 15 minutes.

Santos picked up an early booking as tempers began to flare amongst the sides, several incidents requiring the attention of the officials.

Invicta found the breakthrough in the 39th minute with a well-worked move finished off by “trialist 2”. McKenzie, Hutchinson and Santos moved the ball on the left flank, Santos the man to provide the through ball to split the Ashford defence, the trialist timing his run perfectly before taking the ball around the goalkeeper with his right foot and finishing off with his left.

A familiar left boot denied Invicta a half-time lead, Sam Hasler with a central free kick 25 yards out that deceived the goalkeeper and found the bottom corner.

Ade Yusuff entered the game at the break and thought he had Invicta back in front after just five minutes. An Invicta corner was met by the head of the unmarked Hutchinson and turned home by Yusuff inside the six-yard box but the assistant referee’s flag brought cheers to a halt.

It took just a few minutes for Hutchinson to take matters into his own hands with a superb goal. Liam Smith found Yusuff with a long pass, Santos and McKenzie working the ball for the latter to drive inside and find Hutchinson who dragged the ball over one challenge before his second touch took him beyond a second defender to slot into the bottom corner.

A tussle between Hutchinson and Hasler lead to another flare up for the officials to deal with, then Santos was caught with a late challenge from Ashford’s unnumbered defender.

Ashford’s equaliser from the penalty spot came with 17 minutes remaining. A ball in between the goalkeeper and defender caused hesitation from both trialists, Ashford’s forward winning the race before being caught by the keeper’s outstretched arm. Gary Lockyer stepped up to send the keeper the wrong way.

Just 16 seconds after the restart a late challenge from Santos saw the midfielder pick up his second booking of the evening and depart early.

Hutchinson went closest to restoring Invicta’s lead when he forced a save from Earle with 10 minutes remaining. At the other end, former Invicta forward Louis Collins forced a good save to prevent a repeat of Hasler’s earlier free kick to win Ashford the game.

The final whistle brings us to the midway point of our pre-season schedule, four games down with four to go. Invicta now head to Yorkshire on Saturday to face Bradford (Park Avenue) before trips to National League South opposition Tonbridge Angels, Dover and Hornchurch to round off pre-season.