Folkestone chairman Jim Pellatt has backed Neil Cugley to carry on as manager for years to come.

The 59-year-old has spent almost two decades in charge of his hometown club and Mr Pellatt expects Cugley to push on well past 20 seasons in the dugout.

He said: "He hasn’t lost his enthusiasm for the game and he can go on for as long as he wants.

"I know he can’t wait to have a go at the Ryman Premier. Because everything is so much better now, he feels he can do it and take the club forward.

"He wants to progress more than anybody and he can still motivate the players.

"You can see in his face, when we haven’t played well, that the players are going to get a blasting and you can see that they respond.

"Neil’s built a dressing-room of players who all want to play for the club and work together. There’s no bad apples, nobody talking behind their hands.

"Achieving that, to me, is just about everything you could say about a manager."

Cugley worked closely with Mr Pellatt to balance the books at Folkestone and help them emerge debt-free after five years under a CVA.

The pair put their heads together to give the club a solid financial foundation and Cugley was appointed director of football in July 2014.

Mr Pellatt said: "We have a wonderful working relationship and that was why I put him forward to come on board as a director.

"He plays a bigger part in the club and at board level, it’s not all about people with money, it’s also about having people who can cover certain aspects of the club.

"Neil’s record on the field speaks for itself but I don’t think a lot of people realise just what he contributes and what an ally to the club he is in other directions.

"I have every faith in what he does for the club. I couldn’t have done what I did, off the field, if I hadn’t had his support on the field.

"That was crucial and now he’s got the chance to have a proper budget, a proper set of players that he really wants and have a go."