Folkestone Invicta 1-3 Kingstonian
Outstanding effort in which three men in green score their first K's goals and give their team hope.
A tremendous second half followed a good 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.
After the referee was forced to retire hurt, causing a twelve-minute interruption in play, both Invicta and K's battled it out with both teams squandering good chances until Invicta won a penalty in the 45th minute (or the 58th minute if, like this writer, you didn't turn off your stopwatch). Ira Jackson dispatched the penalty. There was still time in the 17th minute of added time for Tom Collins to strike a free kick against the post and it began to feel as if it was going to be yet another one of those days.
Kingstonian came flying out the blocks to begin the second half, had another effort hit the post before in the 48th minute Hugo Odogwu-Atkinson scored his first goal of his K's career. K's kept up the pressure and took the lead in the 56th minute when Darnell Goather-Braithwaite hit home his first goal as a Kingstonian player. Time then slowed right down and the wind blew ever stronger as the home side pushed forward looking 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 slid the ball home to become the third Kingstonian player to hit their maiden goal of their Kingstonian careers.
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 to come.
