Invicta kicked off pre-season with a win over neighbours Hythe Town on Saturday, with forward Jake Hutchinson scoring a second-half brace to lead Jay Saunders’ side to a 3-0 victory.

A crowd of 702 packed Reachfields, with supporters from both sides wanting to catch a first glimpse of their new-look teams.

Summer additions Montel McKenzie, Kevin Lokko and Mikey Berry were afforded their first start in black and amber, alongside Brad Walledge, Dean Rance, Ade Yusuff and a number or trialists.

Our hosts lined up with three former Invicta players, with goalkeeper Daniel Kennedy taking the gloves and full-backs Elliot Moore and Will Dempsey lining up in defence.

Ira Jackson’s side showed early promise, with vital interventions from both Rance and Lokko preventing Invicta falling behind in the early stages.

Hythe forced a pair of saves from Invicta’s trialist goalkeeper midway through the first half, one from a wide free kick aimed at the near post and the second a low effort from the edge of the box which was comfortably held.

Invicta’s first sight of goal came from a mis-kicked clearance but Mikey Berry was unable to find the empty net with his effort from distance.

Invicta were now growing into the game, Ade Yusuff heading narrowly wide from a corner before Montel McKenzie bent a free kick just past the post – taking out an Invicta supporter and his pint behind the goal!

The start of the second half brought ten changes for Invicta, with trialist no. five the only player remaining from the first 45. Liam Smith, taking the armband, lined up alongside Joel-Michael Odeniran in defence, Jeremy Santos in midfield and Jake Hutchinson in attack.

Invicta broke the deadlock shortly before the hour mark. Trialist 18 ran onto a ball over the top, out-pacing and out-muscling his defender to cut it back to Hutchinson who finished from close range.

Trialist 18 was involved again in the second, collecting a header from Trialist 20 and feeding it back to him to play a perfectly weighted pass in behind the Hythe defence for Hutchinson to race onto. The Invicta front man beat the Hythe goalkeeper to the ball, lifting it beyond him into an empty net.

A third came just seconds later. Invicta’s no. 12 dispossessed a defender and raced beyond another before firing into the far bottom corner.

Trialist 18 came close to adding a fourth for Invicta, controlling the ball with his back to goal before scooping it over the head of his marker and lifting his effort just over the crossbar.

Pre-season continues on Tuesday evening as we travel to Holm Park to face Kevin Watson’s Sheppey United side.