Grantham Town 4 Folkestone Invicta 1

FOLKESTONE Invicta suffered a disappointing defeat at the South Kesteven Sports Stadium as a poor first half performance saw them 2-0 down after just five minutes and 3-0 down after 23 minutes against their Lincolnshire rivals..

Invicta went into the game with their limited resources again stretched as they brought in teenagers Barry Gardner and Mark Towse for unavailable midfielders Scott Lindsey (suspended), Micheal Everitt (hamstring injury) and James Millar (foot injury).

And the visitors got off to a disastrous start as Stuart Wilson headed in to open the scoring after just three minutes when Jon Hawley sent over the first corner of the match from the left.

That was a bad enough start for Neil Cugley's side, but it got worse just two minutes later as Hawley sent the ball in again and a sliced clearance was put over the line at the far post by Grantham's top goalscorer Gary Bull.

And the game was effectively all over as a contest after 23 minutes when Brendan McDaid made it 3-0 from Dave Gilbert's free kick after a push by Martin Chandler.

Invicta replaced right back Gardner with striker John Ayling at half time as they adopted an 'attack is the best form of defence' policy and the visitors improved after the interval.

The visitors pulled a goal back after 68 minutes when Hafner's ball came across from the right for Towse to shoot back into the far corner of the net.

A second Invicta goal would have made things interesting and Ayling did not get enough on his shot when James Dryden's long throw was flicked on to present him with a good chance at the far post after 75 minutes.

Grantham restored their three-goal advantage after 79 minutes when McDaid headed home his second goal of the game at the far post from a Gilbert free kick.

The Gingerbreads then went close again as Bull headed against the crossbar from Hawley's left wing cross.