Goals from Donell Thomas, Josh Strouts and a trialist led Invicta to victory over Dover in a 7-goal thriller at Crabble on Tuesday night.

Jay Saunders shuffled his side with a number of players unavailable – Ade Yusuff (honeymoon), Kevin Lokko (illness), Dean Rance (work commitments) and Jeremy Santos (hamstring) all missed the trip. Ollie Black started in the centre of defence with Liam Smith and Joel-Michael Odeniran while Ben Mason was deployed on the left and Brad Walledge on the right. Jake Hutchinson and Josh Strouts continued their partnership in attack, with Ronnie Dolan, Mikey Berry and Donell Thomas in the middle of the park.

Invicta made a lightning start during last season’s 3-2 win, but it was our hosts who were on the front foot early on this year, winning a corner inside a minute that found the head of Ruben Soares Junior to force a good save from Invicta’s trialist goalkeeper.

Dover’s positive start continued as a second corner, taken short, was headed wide at the near post, Luke Baptiste curled an effort wide from the edge of the box and Alfie Matthews fired just over from slightly further out.

Beyond the 20-minute mark Invicta began to get a foothold into the game and went close to opening the scoring from a Ronnie Dolan corner, Odeniran meeting the delivery at the front post and Jake Hutchinson heading against the crossbar.

Invicta didn’t have to wait much longer to break the deadlock. A poor kick from Dover’s goalkeeper found Mikey Berry who chested the ball down and poked it to Donell Thomas who struck a low effort from 25 yards that the unsettled keeper was unable to get down to push away.

The momentum of the evening appeared to have changed, with the ball now spending more time in the Dover half of the pitch, but as we headed towards half time the hosts struck back. What appeared to be a soft free kick against Josh Strouts 25 yards out was bent around the Invicta wall and into the bottom corner by Matthews to level the score.

Invicta nearly restored their lead immediately with Donell Thomas cutting in from the left and firing his effort just wide of the near post, but the side went in level at the break.

Ben Mason made way for a trialist at the start of the second half, the no. 22 curling an effort narrowly over the crossbar just a minute after the restart. A few minutes later Odeniran won the ball high up the pitch before driving a low effort just beyond the post. At the other end Ollie Black was forced into a block on the edge of the penalty area to deny Baptiste a clear sight of goal.

As we approached the halfway point of the second period Dover squandered a chance with a header from a corner but took the lead just moments later, a deep cross from George Wilkinson found the head of Soares Junior who powered it into the bottom corner, the first goal Invicta have conceded in open play in five matches.

Soares Junior’s goal was the first of five in a thrilling 17-minute spell. Invicta struck back to level in the 70th minute, Donell Thomas finding trialist 22 in space on the left, his low cross into the box finding a well-timed run from Strouts who diverted the ball beyond the Dover goalkeeper.

Invicta weren’t level for long, however. A Dover corner found its way to the feet of Nikaj via the hand of Soares Junior and a back, protests towards both the referee and linesman falling on deaf ears as Dover celebrated retaking the lead.

Thomas went close to levelling the score again with a curling effort that went just beyond the far post, but he was afforded an even better opportunity just minutes later when the referee pointed to the penalty spot. Trialist 22 threaded a pass through the Dover defence for no. 15 who took his touch beyond the goalkeeper and was brought down. Thomas stepped up and fired the spot kick into the top corner in front of the travelling Invicta support.

Four minutes later Invicta were in front again. Odeniran dispossessed a Dover attacker and released Strouts with a long pass, the Invicta forward out-pacing his defender and racing into the penalty area to square the ball to trialist 15 to finish from close range.

Invicta saw out the win, sending us into our final fixture of the summer against Hornchurch on Saturday unbeaten in five games.

We kick off the Isthmian Premier Division season on Saturday 9th August with a trip to Chichester City. Supporters can book seats on our official away travel coach. Click here to book now.