Folkestone Invicta 1 Dover 0

A GOAL from centre back John Guest eight minutes into the second half was enough to send Folkestone and their fans home in delight.

The goal came from Invicta's first shot on target and during brief spell of Folkestone pressure. The ball was crossed from the left and somehow reached Guest at the back post. He produced a “defender's shot,” from close range but it had the legs to sneak past Whites' keeper Zepharin, hitting the net on the third bounce.

A crowd of 2,278 squeezed through the turnstiles for this long-awaited Ryman League, premier division, fixture. But a rock-hard pitch and the pressure of the occasion always dictated that the game was never going to be a classic.

In the opening minute, Michael Everitt's late challenge - for which he was cautioned - on Dover's Daniel Braithwaite gave due notice of the muck and bullets affair that the game was destined to become.

Indeed, there was pressure little noteworthy action in the game's opening 30 minutes as both sides scrapped feverishly to close down space. Yet while neither ‘keeper was even remotely troubled in that period, Whites did enjoy something of a purple patch for the remainder of the opening session.

From a Stuart Maynard free kick, Braithwaite had a shot blocked by the outstanding ex-White Steve Norman. And from their next attack, Byron Bubb worked some space on the right before clipping over a cross that Dean Palmer struck first time, forcing Tony Kessell into the game's first, albeit routine, save.

Athletic should have taken the lead a minute before the break, however, as Chris Wright dived full length at the near post to meet Warren Ryan's great ball in from the left. Wright inexplicably failed to make contact, however, and the chance was lost.

It was to prove Dover's last decent opportunity of the afternoon. Guest's strike certainly made them pay.

In short, Dover simply didn't have a plan B as each and every attack they mounted was curtailed by one poor pass after another. By contrast, Invicta looked a better bet to wrap up the victory, with the impressive Jimmy Dryden going close on a couple of occasions.

At one point, matters threatened to get out of hand, both on and off the park, after a classic case of handbags saw both Palmer and Victor Renner booked and a couple of "supporters" throwing cans on the pitch from behind Kessel’s goal.

Although Dover deserved nothing for their second half display, they did come reasonably close to salvaging a point on a couple of occasions. First, Craig Cloke headed a Maynard free kick just over the bar. And when Cloke tried his luck from a long range free kick, Kessell calmly watched the ball zip a couple of feet wide of his right hand post.