It’s two trips within Kent’s borders off the back of two home games for the Fleet this week, starting with a rare visit to Folkestone Invicta’s Cheriton Road tonight in the Kent Senior Cup.
Anybody under the age of 50 is unlikely to remember a competitive clash at Folkestone, with 1989 being the Fleet’s last visit there in anything other than a pre-season friendly. Despite our county rivalry and a record of fixtures that stretches back more than 50 games, it’s a rare thing to cross paths with Folkestone these days.
Cheriton Road is a ground where plenty of former Fleet heroes have plied their trade, including Jimmy Jackson, Darren Smith, Andy Drury, Scott Lindsey and Lee Gledhill, but it’s a place where Fleet fans have rarely ventured.
The only games in recent memory have all come at Stonebridge Road, with an FA Cup meeting in 2013 preceded by two Kent Senior Cup games – a final in 2000 that Fleet won 3-0 and a semi-final a year later that tipped 5-4 in the Fleet’s favour.
It’s the semi-final that Fleet will endeavour to reach tonight for the first time since 2016 against Neil Cugley’s Isthmian Premier promotion-chasers.
Dennis Kutrieb named a strong Fleet side in the previous round at Bromley and he could call upon similar this evening against a Folkestone side looking to progress in a competition they haven’t won since a pair of victories back in the Eighties.
Cugley’s team have faltered a little of late in their promotion ambitions, just edged out of the play-off spots this week on goal difference by Lewes. Invicta have lost five games in succession, four of those in the league, and conceded 17 in that time as their league position has dropped from third place to sixth.
But Cugley has advised his side to relax away from the rigours of the promotion campaign – something his opposite number might also echo – for the diversion of the Kent Senior Cup. Folkestone, whose crowds average just shy of 700 for league matches, have a number of recognisable faces in their squad – although one recent signing in Andy Drury will be absent, the former Fleet midfielder having taken up the Whitstable manager’s job.
Other Invicta players include ex-Bromley and Dartford winger Luke Wanadio, prolific scorer Ade Yusuff and one-time Fleet transfer target Scott Heard.
Reduced entry prices for the fixture will be £8 for adults, £5 for concessions and £1 for children. And if the tie is level after 90 minutes, it will go straight to a penalty shootout just as occurred at Hayes Lane in the previous round.
