Folkestone Invicta 1 Kingstonian 0 (From Your Local Guardian)

Folkestone Invicta 1 Kingstonian 0

11:40am Wednesday 8th September 2010 in

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Robbie Kember’s brilliant goal on the hour was enough to hand Kingstonian their first Ryman League defeat of the season at Folkestone’s Cheriton Road ground.

It was Invicta’s first win of the season, as they showed more desire to get out of the bottom two than Ks did to stay in the top two.

Ks lined up with top-scorer Bobby Traynor as a lone striker and welcomed Max Hustwick back into midfield after his two-week injury lay off.

Alan Dowson’s men nearly fell behind in the opening minutes, then responded well, creating two gilt-edged chances before the game became a scrappy but well-contested affair, won by the one moment of true class on the night.

Ks keeper Rob Tolfrey was on his game immediately to turn aside Darren Smith’s left-foot shot as Invicta started on the front foot.

Kember then applied both feet to a tough early challenge with Tom Bird and may have feared the worst as referee Stuart Butler lectured him for his recklessness.

The card, when it came, was only yellow. Bird, however, eventually succumbed to the injury, limping off in the 52nd minute.

Ks came within inches of taking a 12th minute lead when Traynor latched onto Dean Lodge’s pinpoint through ball and fired low past Invicta keeper Jack Delo, only to see his shot rebound back into play off Delo’s left-hand post. And a minute later, Adam Thompson fired wide when unmarked six yards from goal.

Kember served a warning of what was to follow when he drilled a 30-yard short narrowly over the crossbar on 28 minutes.

But chances were at a premium until the interval. with defences on top of two lightweight attacks, although the hosts gradually started to win the midfield battle and the initiative was with them as the half drew to a close.

Lodge fired a low right-footed shot at Delo in the opening moments of the second-half. However, Ks created very little until Carl Wilson-Denis’s 68th minute introduction as a second striker, by which time they were behind and chasing the game.

With an hour on the clock, Kember, son of Crystal Palace legend Steve, picked up a loose ball twenty-five yards out and curled an inch-perfect right-foot shot past Tolfrey’s left-hand into the top corner of the net.

Wilson-Denis and Bird’s replacement Sam Clayton, gave Ks more attacking dynamism in the final quarter of the game. But the necessary quality was still lacking in the danger areas, despite some fine build-up play.

And Ks should have fallen further behind in the 78th minute when Simon Austin’s far post header fell to Paul Jones, six yards out. But the striker directed his header back across goal again, into Tolfrey’s grateful clutches.

Billy Dunne replaced an increasingly frustrated and out-of-sorts Traynor as Ks searched for the late heroics which served them so well in previous games.

But apart from a Clayton volley across the face of goal, Invicta weren’t seriously threatened and they held out for a vital, jubilantly-received victory.

Ks: Rob Tolfrey, Dean Hamlin, Tom Bird (Sam Clayton, 52), Tobi Jinadu, Gary MacDonald, Max Hustwick, Matt Gray, Adam Thompson (Carl Wilson-Denis, 68), Bobby Traynor (Billy Dunne, 78), Lee Hall, Dean Lodge. Subs not used: Nic Taylor (GK), Jean Sylvain Dossou.

Ks bookings: MacDonald 88 Attendance: 221