Neil Cugley remains hard at work to strengthen his Folkestone squad after a rollercoaster start to the close season.

The Invicta boss completed his second summer signing this week, bringing in Kieron McCann after the former Chatham wide-man impressed playing for Sevenoaks in the Southern Counties East League Challenge Cup final earlier this month.

Cugley said: “I liked what I saw from him that day. He’s also played for Chatham in the Ryman League and I’m looking forward to seeing how well he’ll do at the higher level.”

McCann follows hot on the heels of another ex-Chat, striker Ade Yusuff, and Cugley added: “He lives up in Medway and can travel down with Ade, so hopefully that will work out well. He’s got plenty of pace and should enjoy playing on our big, wide pitch.”

Cugley has been talking to players and further signings are sure to follow after Invicta’s long-standing defence was further disrupted this week.

After skipper Liam Friend’s shock departure to Margate, his centre-back partner of the past 10 years Frankie Chappell has also opted to leave the club and is expected to join a club closer to his Sussex home.

The 28-year-old and Friend, 29, played more than 1,000 games for Invicta between them, with all but a handful of them coming alongside one another.

Cugley said: “They’ve both been tremendous servants to this club and we’ve achieved so much during the time they’ve been here.

“I was disappointed to lose Friendy in the way that we did but that’s football.

“But Frank had told me about a month ago that travelling up here from Eastbourne three times a week was getting too much for him.

“We were lucky that when he got the job teaching down there a couple of years back we were still able to persuade him to stay at the club.”

Chappell joined the club aged 18 in 2007-08 from Gillingham and after a brief stop at Welling, returned to the club in 2009.

He and Friend were key figures as Folkestone won promotion the following year with just 23 goals conceded in 42 league games.

Chappell’s 501 games also saw him score 56 goals, and he was named supporters’ player-of-the-year for the second time this season, playing in all 56 competitive games.

Cugley said: “I’ve had some time now to get over the shock that they’ll both be gone. They’ve been one of the best defensive partnerships at our level for a long, long time.

“It had looked more than likely that Frank would be going and I was looking forward to seeing how well Friendy and Callum Davies settled into a new partnership together.”

He added: “We are looking for players with experience at the higher levels but we’ve done well with the likes of Harry Smith and Scott Heard who’ve both gone onto bigger things.

“Also Miles Cornwell and Sam Hasler, who we signed from Division 1 South last season and both played their part in helping us stay in the Premier Division. I’m focused on bringing more players in.”