Folkestone Invicta match report
Most of the omens for this game weren’t too wonderful. A four match losing run, away to a club in the top ten in the division and a ground that Kingstonian haven’t won at for three days short of fourteen years, so expectations were reasonably low.
However, a tremendous second half followed a decent first one that ended badly and Kingstonian gained for themselves a monstrously valuable three points on a long afternoon at the BuildKent Stadium in Folkestone.
A quiet beginning to the contest, which thankfully saw Rob Tolfrey last infinitely longer than last season’s disaster of a game after his fifth minute sending off (which eventually was overturned), it was the referee’s turn to make an early exit, pulling a calf muscle in the 13th minute. After an appeal for a qualified linesman was made over the public address system, one eventually appeared and the game recommenced after a twelve minute delay.
When the game did re-start, both teams battled it out and both were guilty of squandering some good chances until Invicta won a penalty when Ibrahim Olutade was brought down by Hugo Odogwu-Atkinson in the 45th minute (or 58th minute if, like this writer, you didn’t turn off your stopwatch). Ira Jackson stepped up and dispatched the penalty. There was still time in the first half when in the 17th minute of added time, Tom Collins struck a free kick against a post, and so it began to feel as if it was going to be yet another one of those days.
Kingstonian came flying out of the blocks to begin the second half, saw another shot hit the post before in the 48th minute when after a prolonged bit of pressure Hugo Odogwu-Atkinson headed home from close range for his first Kingstonian goal.
K’s kept up the pressure and took the lead in the 56th minute when Darnell Goather-Braithwaite received a Tom Collins through ball, turned and slid the ball past the onrushing Patrick Ohman to become player number two of the game to score his first ever K’s goal.
Time then slowed right down and the wind blew ever stronger and the temperature dipped with ever more alacrity as the home side searched for an equaliser, but it was Kingstonian who scored the fourth and final goal of the game in the 85th minute with a fine counter which saw Tom Collins split the defence with a pass for David Nyarko, who passed the ball past the advancing Ohman and into the net to become player number three of the game to score his first ever K’s goal.
After three minutes of very slow-feeling added time, the referee blew the final whistle on a long afternoon in which Kingstonian came from behind to win a game for the first time this campaign and at the same time gave themselves some extra time that maybe, just maybe, the bottom four can be avoided. There are four more agonising games remaining to the season to decide, there are many more twists and turns to this relegation battle still to come.
Folkestone Invicta: Patrick Ohman, Robbie Dolan, Nathan Green, Ian Gayle, Callum Davies, Matt Newman, Scott Heard, Jordan Ababio, Ibrahim Olutade, Louis Collins, Ira Jackson.
Subs: Lenny Atherton (for Louis Collins, 77m), Jake Dancer (for Robbie Dolan, 86m), Finlay Dent (for Ira Jackson, 85m), Micheal Everitt, Joe Coleman.
Kingstonian: Rob Tolfrey, Emmanuel Adebiyi, Ibrahim Bangura, Hugo Odogwu-Atkinson, Matt Drage, Charlie Greenwood, Lee Lewis, Sean Bonnett-Johnson, Tom Collins, Darnell Goather-Braithwaite, David Nyarko.
Subs: Hakeem Adelakun, Alex MacAllister, Keane Anderson (for Tom Collins, 86m), Michael Abnett (for Darnell Goather-Braithwaite, 82m), Jacob Bancroft (for David Nyarko, 90m).
Goal scorers: Ira Jackson (45m+13 pen, 1-0), Hugo Odogwu-Atkinson (48m, 1-1), Darnell Goather-Braithwaite (56m, 1-2), David Nyarko (85m, 1-3)
Attendance: 722
