Hinkley United 3 Folkestone Invicta 3

FOLKESTONE Invicta and their supporters had to settle for a point despite leading three times in an incident packed second half at a wet Middlefield Lane on Saturday.

Despite having Scott Lindsey controversially sent off, it seemed that Invicta were on course for their first competitive win since August 31 when substitute John Ayling put Neil Cugley's side 3-2 up after 77 minutes.

But Invicta were again to concede a late goal when Hinckley substitute Chris Smith denied the visitors a heroic victory with an 89th minute equaliser.

Invicta had played the closing 25 minutes with ten men when Lindsey was dismissed for what referee Anthony Keates from Leek deemed to be a second bookable offence for a sliding challenge on substitute Smith.

The referee had made no allowances for the slippery conditions and had earlier harshly booked Lindsey for raising his foot in a seemingly innocuous challenge on David Crowley after just ten minutes.

Invicta's Scott Daniels (dissent after 32 minutes), James Dryden (foot up on goalkeeper after 35 minutes), Allan Tait (kicking the ball away), Maurice Munden (dissent after 75 minutes) and John Guest (bad foul after 78 minutes) were all also booked in what was never a dirty game.

Referee Keates had started the trend by booking Hinckley striker Scott Voice for dissent after eight minutes.

Other referees may well have only cautioned Guest for his challenge on Jamie March and that only came about after Keates had missed an earlier foul on Invicta's Steve Hafner as passions ran high a minute after Invicta had gone 3-2 up.

After enjoying the better of the first half, Invicta opened the scoring after 53 minutes when top goal scorer Tait shot into the net when put through by the fit again James Millar.

The lead was not to last for long as left back March levelled with a good finish after a one-two in the Invicta box. But Everitt restored Invicta's lead after 61 minutes when he buried the ball into the net from the edge of the penalty area after Tait had laid the ball back to him when Dryden played it in from the right in a move started by Guest.

Lindsey's sending off just four minutes later left Invicta with a lot of defending to do. And it was 2-2 after 70 minutes when Wayne Dyer equalised after David Sadler had a shot blocked in a move also involving Voice.

It looked as though it was still going to be Invicta's day when Ayling made it 3-2 when he put the ball into an empty net from goalkeeper Munden's big kick after a misunderstanding between defender Simon. But the Kent club conceded another agonising late goal when substitute Smith fired a great finish into the far corner.

FOLKESTONE INVICTA: Munden, Hafner, Millar (Ayling 71 minutes), Everitt, Daniels, Guest, Lindsey, Azzopardi, Dryden, Tait, Henry. Unused subs: Gardiner, Blackman.