A new generation of talented young players is emerging at Folkestone Invicta.

Manager Neil Cugley named four youngsters on the bench against Lewes on Saturday, with three of them getting minutes.

Ethan Madden, Jordan Small and Jack Price all featured late in the game as Invicta won 4-0.

Injuries and suspension for senior players have opened the door for them and Cugley insists they deserve it.

He said: “The young lads around the club are good players. They deserve to be on the bench rather than just getting people in for a game or two.

“That would be a kick to them because our youth team are doing brilliantly. They’re in two cup finals and they’re top of their league.

“Why bother running under-18s if you’re not going to use them at all? Credit to them and it’s nice they can be part of what we’re doing.

“It’s a big jump for them, to be fair, but they’re brought up well in our under-18s. They treat them a bit like men.”

Folkestone’s under-18s beat Dover on penalties last weekend to reach the KitToFit Cup final and they’re 10 points clear at the top of the Kent Youth League.

Cugley said: “They’re unbeaten in the league and they’ve had a tremendous season. All credit to them and it’s something we should be proud of as a club.

“If you haven’t got big financial backing you sometimes have to go into your youth section.

“One thing we’ve done well at Folkestone is put lads in from the youth section and also taken a gamble on players like Ira Jackson from the league below.

“The majority of my team are lads who have come out of Ryman South, as it was, so all credit to them because they’ve rolled their sleeves up and showed they can do it.

“You only have to look at Micheal Everitt, Josh Vincent and Johan ter Horst. They all came out of our youth team so it shows that if you carry on your progress, you could be playing for Folkestone for quite a few years.”

Invicta, three places and two points outside the Bostik Premier play-offs, travel to Leatherhead on Saturday.

They’re bound to be put under pressure by a Tanners side just one point behind them in the race for the play-offs.

Cugley admitted: “We’ve got to do better away from home. Our home form has been absolutely tremendous and some of the performances have been really top level so we’ve got to try to take that into the away games.

“That’s what we’ll be talking about to the players this week. We’ll need to win a lot of games so we will go at teams.

“When we played Leatherhead earlier in the year, they were near the bottom and so were we, so it’s funny how we’ve both turned it around since then.

“It’s an important game and when you look at our run-in, if we’re not playing the top teams, we’re playing the ones like Whitehawk who are desperate to stay up.”

Top scorer Ade Yusuff returns after suspension while Matt Newman and ter Horst could both be fit enough to play.

Kieron McCann misses the game and Sam Hasler is out for up to four weeks after injuring his ankle on loan at Ashford.