Neil Cugley hopes Ira Jackson will stick around at Folkestone Invicta after scoring on his full debut for the club.

The former Dover youngster joined from Sittingbourne earlier this season and has waited patiently for his chance in the team.

Jackson has impressed off the bench and he filled in well for Ade Yusuff at Carshalton on Saturday.

“He did well,” Cugley said. “He’s a good lad and anyone who knows him will tell you he’s a nice person.

“He’s very dedicated, he wants to do well and they’re the sort of players over the years we’ve tried to get at Folkestone, people from the lower leagues who want to come in and show they can play at this standard. He comes into that category.

“He’s very good at beating the first man – but I suppose we’ve got a few of them on our day.

“He gives us another option up front and with us selling Kane Rowland to Ramsgate, that’s when he moved up the ladder.

“He deserved his chance and took it well.

“Hopefully he’ll have a good pre-season if he stays and then who knows?

“He’s waited for his chance and showed an excellent attitude to everything.”

Folkestone were down to the bare bones at Carshalton, where they led 2-1 but ended up losing the match 4-2.

Matt Newman could return in defence at home to Lewes on Saturday but strikers Yusuff and Johan ter Horst are out through suspension and injury respectively.

Cugley admitted: “We are a bit short on numbers at the moment.

“We were literally down to 11 but we get on with it.

“It’s no good throwing money at things just for the sake of it.

“If you haven’t got the finances, it can knock you back.

“I think we’ve done all right all year so can we push and do it (make the play-offs)? We’ll give it a go.

“We’ll try to win every single game; that’s how we play.

“We’d like to be up there at the end but we won’t bankrupt the club to do it.

“If you don’t make it or you lose in the play-offs, your finances are in a mess and we’re just trying to be a well-run club.”

Folkestone have gone three games without a win but at home, they’ve won 12 and drawn one of their last 13.

Cugley said: “We’ve got five games left at home (out of nine) and our home record’s been absolutely superb recently. It’s in our hands so we’ll do our best.

“Win one and you’re back in the play-offs, lose one and you’ve dropped down. It’s a competitive league, a good league, a league we like to be in and we want to do as well as we can in it.”