Folkestone Invicta Youth Under 18s bowed out of the FA Youth Cup on Thursday evening as a strong Cray Valley PM side ran out 4-1 winners at the Alcaline Stadium.

Travel disruption on the M20 appeared to have caused issues for the visitors who had to make 3 changes to their starting lineup due to players stuck in traffic but it certainly didn’t seem to affect them as they took the lead inside 4 minutes with one of their last minute changes rinding the bottom corner following good work down the left.

Invicta struck back in the 21st minute after the visitors failed to clear a free kick from deep with the ball eventually falling to forward Jack Bone who turned and fired home from distance to level the scores.

Invicta weren’t level for long as the visitors won a penalty immediately from kick off. Goalkeeper Sam Grant got down to his right to get a hand to the ball but couldn’t keep it out.

Cray Valley doubled their advantage just before half time as Invicta failed to clear a cross from the right that fell nicely for the visiting forward to smash home from close range.

The visitors put the tie to bed midway through the second half with a counter attack from and Invicta corner. The set piece was headed clear at the near post and an error allowed Cray Valley to break 2 on 2 before firing in their 4th under goalkeeper Grant to complete the scoring.

The match would finish 10 v 10 as both teams saw a man sent off late on. Invicta’s goalscorer Bone was unlucky to go for a high tackle that looked only worthy of a yellow card.

Moments later the numbers were evened up in bizarre circumstances as the FA’s new directives came into full force. The visitor’s number 7 attempted to return the ball back downfield so that Invicta could take a free kick but the ball ricocheted off an Invicta player and shot off in the wrong direction which the referee appeared to deem time wasting and booked the player before quickly producing a second yellow and sending the player off, seemingly for something he said due to his understandable frustration.

Thankfully the game cooled down from that point and the visitors saw out their 4-1 victory. We wish Cray Valley the best of luck in the next round as they host Croyden FC who prevailed 8-2 at Whitstable Town earlier in the week.