Date: 10th October 2004

Scorers:
Invicta - Hermitage (10, 14 pen) Willers (11, 59) Mason (8) Holmes 20

Man of the match:
Jamie Mason, opened the scoring for Invicta and provided a constant threat to Keston going forward and covered his midfield duties with a real maturity.

Invicta secured their 4th win of the season with a 4 goal blast in the opening 15 minutes that surprised Keston and a few of the home supporters too as Tonbridge took a hold on this game from the off.

Leading scorer Willers returned to the starting line up as Nicholls’ cameo appearances up front came to an end, reverting to his more familiar but no less effective central defensive role alongside the steady Barnett.

Playing against the firm breeze in the first period, good work by Hinson saw his cross flicked on by Willers and Macey thumped home the ball from a narrow angle on 8 minutes. Invicta made it 2-0 on 10 mins as Thompson drive was well stopped by Tom Kemp but Hermitage was on hand to snap up the rebound.

Invicta’s next attack bought a third goal as Hinson again supplied Willers whose headed over the advancing keeper. Thompson and Phillips, with his best performance of the season working hard in the centre of midfield denied Keston any time or space.

On 15 minutes Phillips fed Hermitage who was initially well defended against but as he waited for the ball to run out for a corner was pushed in the back giving referee Smith little choice. Hermitage stepped up to make it 4-0 from the penalty spot despite a good effort from Kemp.

The one way traffic was halted as Keston started to compete for the ball and used their pace well down the flanks. The game was very even until half time with Keston going close just before the break but saw Barnett clear off his goal line.

The first 20mins of the second period continued on an even basis with Smith looking very solid in the Invicta goal against Keston’s goal bound efforts.

Thompson returned mid way through the second half to gee up Invicta and in the best move of the game was influential in the fifth goal. Keston’s corner was headed clear by Nicholls, Willers played in the supporting Thompson, who made good ground before feeding Willers to finish with a low strike in the corner from the edge of the box.

Straight from the re-start the lively Holmes chased down the kick off and his pressure on the defenders allowed him to nick the ball and finish very sweetly for his first goal of the season on 60 mins.

Invicta were denied further goals by some excellent saves from Tom Kemp, notably a one handed effort from Thompson and a parry to deny Hermitage his hat trick.

Invicta will be as pleased with the clean sheet as they were with the quality of their finishing. Next week sees Invicta at home again to Hamsey Rangers.

Leading scorers:
Tom Willers 6
Chris Hermitage 5