The chase for a top-five finish is still on the agenda for Folkestone Invicta despite losing their star man.

Striker Ade Yusuff made a scoring start for his new club Hornchurch on Saturday after switching clubs while Folkestone claimed a 3-1 win away at Horsham - ending their run of three successive losses.

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Invicta joint boss Roland Edge admits Yusuff is irreplaceable with the funds they have but the club’s ambitions haven’t changed.

He said: “Ade is a good player, a big character too, the pitch and the dressing room is lighter without him but we have never been a one-man team, the whole thing about Folkestone is about the team ethos and the cohesion, it is no different, we have to be together and work hard.

“With what went on in the week, it was really nice to get the win and credit to the lads, they did brilliant. Things do happen in football. I remember being at Gills and Bob Taylor was scoring a goal a game and the next thing Bob’s gone, it is how it works, the club decides it is the best thing, you have to pick it up and that is when others in the team can stand up and get something going. The team got together and that was the year we got into the Championship so it can be done even when you lose your best. He definitely was our best! You just have to get on with it.”

Horsham’s Harvey Sparks scored direct from a corner on Saturday to put the hosts infront but Ira Jackson levelled from the spot just before the break. Scott Heard and Ibrahim Olutade netted in the second half to clinch the points for Invicta.

Edge said: “Ire is good in pressure situations. We knew the importance of the goal - after the week we had just had, people scrutinising every move, we were better than them but they put a corner straight in and you think, ‘ah, is it one of those days?!’

“Credit to their management, really nice blokes, sometimes you have to accept when the other team are better and despite their two sendings off they praised us at the end, said we deserved it and were the better side, it was nice to hear after the week we had.”

The Hornets - who were nine unbeaten before the weekend - included former Invicta player Kadell Daniel in their squad - another to have recently departed from the club. They finished the game with nine men.

Lee Harding was sent off on 69 minutes after a large-scale melee, picking up his second yellow card - his first came for throwing the ball away earlier in the game. Busy referee Alex Bradley halted the game mid-flow to dismiss forward Daniel Ajakaiye on 90 minutes for dissent and was still handing out cautions as the game ended.

Two big games are coming up as Invicta look to climb the table towards the play-off places - starting away to Cray Wanderers (tonight) who currently occupy the fifth-placed spot. Strugglers Corinthian Casuals are the visitors to 12th placed Folkestone on Saturday.

“We will go to the end to try and get into that top five,” Edge said. “Cheshunt did it last year and ended up in the league above. We just have to get the run going now.

“Cray Wanderers are a good side, I like them, they work to their strengths. Tom Derry upfront is really good and has given a great return back to Smudge (Neil Smith). He is a really good manager and knows what he is doing.

“It is nice to go there after beating Horsham, you can go with a different mindset, but the boys will be made well aware that if we aren’t at it 100% we will come away with nothing.”

On Saturday’s game, Edge said: “Corinthian Casuals will be the really tough one because of the expectation, we have only just come back from Brightlingsea Regent where we lost and they were rock bottom. The league sometimes isn’t true, they had brought three or four new players in that made a really big impact and they are a decent side now.

"If we can get something from Cray and then let our standards drop against Corinthian we will look daft. If we could get six points it would be unbelievable.”

Folkestone will reinvest some of the money from Yusuff’s exit - with forward Louis Collins joining from Tonbridge Angels ahead of their midweek match - and Edge said: “The truth is you can’t replace Ade, that’s the reason why he has got a monetary value at this level, for the likes of Hornchurch, who are a really big club, they won the Trophy a couple of years ago, they can afford to get him and they also have Chris Dickson, Sam Higgins and Liam Nash, that just tells you they are National South.

“I don’t blame Ade for going, there is every chance they will be into the next league. We can’t just go and identify and pick and pay and get them, we have to make do, but we have got the talent and we are looking to try and get one or two in to spice it up and add to what we have got but they have to be the right people.”