Folkestone boss Neil Cugley dedicated his side's play-off semi-final win to the club's loyal supporters.

Cugley told fans in February that he needed £10,000 to keep his squad together after a difficult winter which had stretched Invicta's finances the limit.

And those supporters responded by raising the funds, allowing Cugley to lead his talented team to a second-placed finish in Ryman League Division 1 South.

Now they're in the play-off final after beating Hastings 3-2 on Tuesday night.

Cugley said: "I came off the pitch and somebody gave me £100 to get the lads a drink. It’s great. They’ve been tremendous, the fans.

"They money they raised in February, if that hadn’t come in, I don’t know what side I would have had or where we’d have been in the league. They deserve all the credit. It’s great that we’ve got to the play-off final at least, for them that put the money in."

Cugley saw Frankie Chappell head his side into an early lead against Hastings but although they controlled play for much of the first half, they couldn't add to their score.

He said: "I was a bit disappointed. I thought we could have played better, really. I was really chuffed with the first 20 minutes or half an hour, I thought we looked the better side by a long way and I thought ‘here we go’ but we just dropped our standards a bit, if I’m being honest. We should have put it to bed early in that first half-hour. We were the better side and I was disappointed we were only 1-0 up."

Hastings cancelled out Chappell's strike and then levelled things up again after Dane Luchford had put Invicta 2-1 up, to force extra-time. But the visitors were finally beaten by a deflected Josh Vincent effort in the 113th minute.

Cugley said: "It was really end-to-end at the end. To be fair to both teams, there were a lot of tired people out there. They’d given everything and I feel sorry for the lad who made a mistake at the end because that cost them.

"Because we were always in front, you think ‘maybe we’ll get another one’ but they were throwing everything, we were throwing everything and there were a lot of tired legs. Anybody can make a mistake in that situation.

"Maybe we deserve a bit of luck, I don’t know. I was just pleased to see it go in. I’m delighted because the players have worked so hard. Look at where we were in September or October, third from bottom, and now we’re in the play-off final. It’s a tremendous achievement from my players.

"To be fair to their manager, Terry (White), he came in and said 'well done' to our lads and I would have done exactly the same to them, because it could have gone either way. I’m absolutely chuffed to be in the final, can’t wait, we’re looking forward to it."

Folkestone are at home to Leatherhead in the play-off final on Saturday.