Invicta Take A Dart At The Kent Senior Cup

          vs            

Following the somewhat surprising decision to get the competition completed this season, on Tuesday Invicta travel to Chatham Town’s Bauvill Stadium to play holders Dartford in the Kent Senior Cup Final, kick-off 7:45pm. Don’t forget, if the tie is level after ninety minutes it will go straight to penalties, there is no extra time nor a replay.

As mentioned, Dartford are the current holders and overall, they’ve won the competition on twelve occasions whilst Invicta will be hoping its sixth time lucky having lost five previous Finals, although the old Folkestone club won it six times in its various guises.

Like ourselves, ‘The Darts’ started at the Second Round stage, beating Vanarama National League Dover 2-1 at home with a brace from Jordan Greenidge, on his debut for the club having signed on loan from Weymouth until the end of the season on the same day. They followed that win with a 4-2 Quarter Final victory at Margate of the Premier Division with goals from Luke Allen, Kalvin Kalala, Ade Azeez and Ody Alfa, before coming back from 2-0 down at Welling United, who play in the same Division as them, the Vanarama National League South, at half-time in the Semi Final to draw 2-2 after ninety minutes, with goals from Greenidge and a Jake Robinson penalty in stoppage time, before winning 5-3 on penalties.  

It may also be worth pointing out that prior to competing in this season’s Kent Senior Cup competition, in November they registered a comprehensive 6-1 victory over South East Division Whitstable Town in the 2019/20 Final which had been delayed due to Covid, so they are looking for the unique achievement of winning the Kent Senior Cup twice in the same season! Their goals came from Jake Robinson, who bagged a hat-trick, Danny Leonard, George Porter, and Tyrique Hyde. 

By comparison Invicta beat South East Division VCD Athletic 1-0 at home in the Second Round thanks to Alfie Paxman’s goal in the second half, and then we followed that up with a 3-1 victory over a strong Ebbsfleet United of the Vanarama National League South. Ian Draycott and David Smith gave us a 2-0 half-time advantage, before our opponents pulled a goal back with around twenty minutes to go, but Simo Mbonkwi clinched the tie four minutes from time we registered a 3-1 victory in a game that didn’t finish until around 10:30pm due to them arriving late following traffic hold-ups on the M20! In the Semi Final, first half goals from Ade Yusuff and David Smith gave us a 2-0 victory over local neighbours Hythe Town of the South East Division, in front of 1,019 spectators which is the highest attendance in this season’s competition.

Incidentally, we may have preferred the game to have been played at Dartford as in their last two away League games in the regular season they won 6-0 at Slough Town and 7-2 at Eastbourne Borough with a 1-0 home defeat against Braintree Town sandwiched in between!!

Vanarama National League South Division Final Table

Having had an excellent season which saw them finish 4^th, last Thursday they played 7^th placed Chippenham Town in the Elimination Round of the Play-offs, but, after a 0-0 draw after one hundred and twenty minutes, their hopes of promotion were dashed when they lost 3-2 in a penalty shoot-out in which both goalkeepers excelled, as the five penalties that weren’t scored were all saved.

On Friday I caught up with Neil, and he said: “Since the news broke about the Final date, I’ve had my phone glued to my ear calling round and getting a team together. “I must say the attitude of the players has been excellent and I’m confident that we’ll have a reasonably strong side despite the fact we haven’t played for around three weeks, and I know some of the players have been having a bit of rest and relaxation, and quite rightly so as our first training session for this season was on May 1^st which means they’ve been going virtually non-stop for fifty-four weeks.”

“Sadly, one of those who is unable to play is one of our longest and most loyal players, JV [Josh Vincent], as he has other commitments, he deserves to be playing in the Final for all his efforts for the club over the years. “Nevertheless, being Folkestone Invicta, we’ll roll up our sleeves and get on with it and do our best for the supporters who have been fantastic this season, and hopefully pick up the trophy.”

“The fact that we’ll have a decent side out, shows the spirit and camaraderie we have amongst the squad as some will be playing out of contract and others have changed work shifts in order to be able to play and I can’t thank them enough.”

Finally, he commented on our opponents: “I’m delighted to be playing Dartford and am looking forward to it, as I had a good time there in my playing days and am friends with a number of the good people they have at the club, and I’m sure that losing in the Play-offs will give them incentive to try their hardest to pick up the trophy.”        

In view of the late notice of the playing of the Final, Kent F.A. released the following statement: “ After consultation with The F.A., it was confirmed that there was no dispensation to roll any matches over to next season, so all matches must be played by Tuesday 31 May 2022. “Therefore, the only date available for both clubs to take part in the Kent Senior Cup Final is Tuesday, 17 May, at Chatham Town FC. “On behalf of everyone at Kent FA, we would like to wish both teams the best of luck for the Final.”

However, hopefully next season, the competition will be managed better (with more adherence to the Round cut-off dates) to avoid this issue arising again, and it would possibly help to have a Final date set at the start of the season to aim towards, unlike this season as when all the Cup Final dates were published for the various competitions run by them, the Senior Cup was the only one that was marked ‘tbc’.

This Season’s Kent Senior Cup Details

First Round Results

Second Round Results

Quarter Final Results

Semi Final Fixtures and Dates

FINAL

Chatham Town Travel Details

The ground address is the Bauvill Stadium, Bournville Avenue, Chatham, Kent, ME4 6LR.

• Road mileage, 39.20 miles (travel time, 45 minutes, although currently it may be best to allow more time!). Use the M20 and exit at junction 6&5 and take the A229 exit to Maidstone/Chatham. At The Running Horse Roundabout, take the 1st exit onto A229 and at the roundabout, take the 1st exit onto the A229 ramp to M2/Chatham before merging onto the A229. At the roundabout, take the 2nd exit onto Maidstone Road/A229 and continue to follow A229 before turning right to stay on A229. Then turn left onto Horsted Way/A230, continue onto Maidstone Road before turning right onto Bournville Avenue and the ground will be on the left.
• If you are letting the train take the strain, then there would appear to be two possible routes to Chatham, but both involve changing trains on your journey. You can either change at Dover Priory and Faversham or take HS1 and change at Ebbsfleet International. The train station is around a mile from the ground but is an uphill walk to the ground!   

To all those travelling, have a safe journey.

Admission Details

Please note all tickets must be bought beforehand, there are no tickets for sale on the turnstiles on the night, although they will be available on-line up until kick-off.

Admission is £10.00, with concessions £5.00, and Under 5s free and tickets are available here:

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/kent-senior-cup-final-tickets-337166573297.

Colours

For those of you that like to wear the right colours at our games, although this one is being played on a neutral ground, we are the delegated ‘home’ side, so shall be wearing our black and amber kit.