Canterbury City 2 Folkestone Invicta 3
City continued their tough pre-season programme today, with a narrow defeat against Ryman League Folkestone Invicta at Cheriton Road. The home side finally bagged a winner ten minutes from time after squandering several chances and seeing City twice come from a goal behind to level.
Despite putting City under a lot of pressure straight from the start, it was a fairly even first half. The home side forced several early corners, but failed to prosper from any of them. City were almost gifted a lead when a corner of their own fortunately bounced off a defender landing straight into the hands of a somewhat surprised Folkestone keeper, former City player Roddy Hayward.
Renford Tenyue was seeing plenty of the ball and working into some great positions, but couldn’t quite get his normal accuracy with his crosses. City keeper Connor Quinn made a couple of regulation saves before Folkestone came close on twenty-two minutes seeing a shot dragged just past the far post of any empty goal. Michael Smisson had shots blocked out by a defender and then Hayward, while Folkestone missed another opportunity again shooting wide after having won the ball in midfield.
City had a golden chance to take the lead on thirty-six minutes when Tenyue was fouled in the area and a penalty awarded. Despite sending Hayward the wrong way, Smisson’s spot kick crashed against the cross bar and was cleared. After this, Folkestone enjoyed a period of pressure, which culminated in them taking the lead on forty-four as Frankie Chappell got away from the defence to fire home for 0-1. Their celebrations were cut short however when within a minute, Sam Baker found himself on a forward run, tiptoeing his way past a startled defence and slotting the ball under Hayward for the equaliser. Half time and it’s all square at 1-1.
For the first twenty minutes after the restart, the home side were very much in the ascendancy but failed really to make the most of their advantage. A shot was blasted well over following a bit of a goalmouth scramble as Folkestone enjoyed the majority of the possession. On fifty-eight minutes, a break which started from Hayward, swept through the middle of the pitch and ended with Jason Sowie giving them the lead again despite an excellent one-handed save from Quinn in the build up.
Over the next few minutes, they could have extended their lead on three separate occasions. Firstly, a poorly squared pass should have found an attacker with just Quinn to beat, next, having rounded the City keeper, a totally under hit shot was easily walked off the City line by a defender and finally, a ferocious shot cannoned off the underside of the bar and away.
Having weathered this storm, City then had their own chances too. A couple of penalty appeals were waved away as Tenyue appeared to have been brought down by Hayward and then a defender clearly handled a cross into the arms of the keeper. Also for City, Smisson had a shot charged down, while at the other end Quinn was called upon to make a smart double save. With fifteen minutes left, City got their second equaliser. Bobby Hitchcock dashed down the left and despite being pushed slightly wide still managed to beat Hayward with a low shot for 2-2.
The game then swung from end to end with both sides, to their credit, striving for a winner which Folkestone finally managed on eighty minutes. An attack, again down the centre, was finished by Josh Vincent shooting under the advancing City substitute keeper David Woodward. In the last ten there were still efforts at either end, most notably Tenyue having two shots blocked and Woodward saving low down by his post. Hayward took a couple of high balls well under pressure and Folkestone wastefully shot over.
Final score: Canterbury City 2 Folkestone Invicta 3.
City squad; Connor Quinn, Sam Baker, Steve O’Brien, Joe Kennett, Richard Gamble, Renford Tenyue, Macauley Murray, Jake Gess, Michael Smisson, Jake Marsh, Jack Tanner, Stephen Baines, David Woodward, Bobby Hitchcock.