Johan ter Horst’s meteoric rise from Ryman League to Premier League has inspired Folkestone player-of-the-year Liam Friend to chase his dream of playing higher up the pyramid.

Friend, 26, watched ter Horst break into the Invicta first-team and then impress scouts from big clubs before earning a three-year contract at Hull City.

And after the disappointment of losing in the Ryman League Division 1 South play-offs three seasons running, Friend doesn’t want to be stuck in the eighth tier of English football much longer.

He said: "Everyone wants to play at the best possible level and if anyone thinks you can’t make that jump, Johan has proved you can. He’s jumped up seven leagues. You’ve got to set yourself high standards.

"I’ve achieved my minor goals of coming through the reserves and captaining the first team. Now my aim is to play as well as I can and at the highest level I can. I’d love to be in Johan’s position, going to the Premier League or the Championship.

"But no scouts are coming to watch me," he laughed. "I don’t score goals as good as Johan’s!

"There always seem to be one or two players every season who make it, although I’m a little bit too old to be considered a wonderkid."

Invicta boss Neil Cugley last week admitted life in the Ryman Premier next season would have been a struggle because his budget wouldn’t have been increased.

But the suggestion that Folkestone belong in Division 1 South doesn’t wash with Friend.

He said: "Conference South, or Conference Premier, that’s where any non-league player wants to be. I was looking at some pictures from the Dover-Ebbsfleet (play-off) game, with 4,500 people there and those are the sort of games you want to be playing in.

"I understand what Cugs was saying but it doesn’t mean we wouldn’t have been successful up there."

Full story in the Folkestone & Hythe Express.