Saturday 18 January 2003 - Cheriton Road - kick off 3.00pm Dr Martens Premier Division

As you might have guessed from the above paragraph City were not without pre-match problems of their own. With Paul Milsom ruled out with a groin injury and both Gary Thorne and Dan Cleverley only fit enough to make the bench, alongside teenagers Luke Scott and James Billing, there were recalls for Mike Trought, Jamie Gosling and Bennet, the latter in an unfamiliar striking role. These troubles were soon forgotten though as City set about a defence that had conceded nine goals in their last two games and it was very clear why. All afternoon the painfully slow centre-back pairing of Daniels and Henry failed to cope with Bennett and Williams's pace. The first opening arrived after 13 minutes. A long ball over the top left the amber clad pair trailing in Bennett's wake. He easily rounded keeper Munden but rather than shooting toward goal elected to square toward Jason Eaton, allowing Daniels to finally arrive on the scene and intercept. Further half chances came and went, too often the final pass or cross lacked quality, although Williams should have done better than head wide when Stuart James's far post cross picked him out. It just looked a matter of time until a goal arrived and with 20 minutes gone it did - unfortunately it was Mark Bryant who had to recover the ball from his net. A free kick was drilled low into City box by Millar and via Tait and Kemp the ball flew into the net. This hearalded Folkestone's best spell of the game as Ayling headed narrowly over and then Millar repeated the trick with a rising shot. Trought's 25 yard shot forced a tip over from Munden after 28 minutes and Gosling's shot was also saved well by the veteran keeper. With a minute remaining in the half City drew level. Williams low cross was mis-hit by Gosling only for Bennett to react smartly and crash it into the roof of the net.

Normally the timing of the goal would have seen the beneficiaries come out strongly following the interval but within five minutes City contrived to hand the lead back to the home side. Dryden's ball in from the left looked to be of little danger only for City to fail to deal and Millar was able to fire past Bryant. Eaton almost bundled home an equaliser from a corner shortly after this but City only had to wait until the 54th minute to be on level terms again. Kemp's long clearance left the Invicta backline flatfooted again. Bennett raced away and lashed a shot into the net via the underside of the crossbar. A superb double save by Munden on 61 minutes, blocking James's shot and Eaton's follow-up, denied City the lead and four minutes later the game appeared to turn back in favour of the hosts. Millar was given a clear run on Bryant's goal until Kemp's lunging challenge sent him crashing to the ground. As last man Kemp could have received a straight red but the yellow was enough to see him depart the action as he had already been booked in the first half. The resultant free-kick flew harmlessly wide and from then on City made light work of being a man down. A trademark run by Williams after 74 minutes saw him cut in from the left, drifting past several defenders to give himself a shooting chance. And the not-quite-so trademark end result was the ball nestling in the corner of the net. Understandably, this appeared to drain what little confidence the home side still possessed and five minutes later the game was over. Drew Shore had already sent one shot narrowly over before trying again from 30-yards out. Munden did get a hand to the stunning effort but could not prevent it finding the net. Bennett almost completed his hat-trick only for Munden to produce another excellent double block with four minutes remaining but this was of little consequence to City as they stretched their unbeaten run to five games.