Folkestone Invicta 3 Tonbridge Angels 1

Match 72/19/1794 - Tuesday, 11th February 2020 - Kent Senior Cup 2nd Round

Folkestone Invicta (0) 3 Ter Horst 52,58,82
Tonbridge Angels (0) 1 Ajayi 50
Attendance: 193

Admission: Pass
Programme: £0.50
Mileage: 76/5,455

Every so often a match comes along that you think it might well be better in the long run to lose this one and for 45 minutes it looked as though both teams had drawn the same conclusion. On a freezing cold night what was needed was a rip-roaring cup tie and this didn't offer anything of that nature.

As the referee attempted to defrost his whistle at the end of the first half, a Khale Da Costa free kick clipped the top of the bar to refocus the hardy attendance away from the cold that was biting at the extremities.

Goals will always enliven a contest and, with four of them, at the least the second period had some talking points.

Tonbridge opened the scoring on 50 minutes when a quickly taken free kick found Jared Small whose cross to the far post was converted by Joshua Ajayi for his first goal for the Angels.

The lead was to last just two minutes as Invicta worked the ball to the edge of the box from where Johan Ter Horst who ripped a shot past Ted McDonald in the Angels goal.

On 58 minutes Ter Horst doubled his tally when he found himself with an acre of space around the penalty spot to fire home following a Matt Newman cross.

Tonbridge responded with a bit of fight. Rhian Bray might have done better than direct a header wide from a corner and Christ Tiehi saw his fine effort go unrewarded as it rebounded off a post.

But the tie was wrapped up, to the relief of most of the crowd who didn't even want the extended time that penalties would bring, when Her Horst completed his hat trick after Ian Draycott's shot had been deflected into the striker's path.

The tie, that had been originally drawn to be played at Longmead Stadium but due to the ongoing pitch problems and a previous postponement was switched to Cheriton Road, was at least out of the way. Game time had been got into the legs of players and some fringe players had been given the chance to perform.

The M20 was shut on the way home leaving one to consider one's own sanity!