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Faversham Town earned themselves another three points with a hard fought victory over local rivals Norton Sports in front of a crowd of 216 at Salters Lane in the Lilywhites first home fixture of the new campaign.
The Salters Lane crowd were stunned within the opening minutes as the visitors being awarded a free-kick just outside of the Town area - Ryan Rook's strike receiving an unfortunate deflection as it flew past Town keeper Rob French after only 3 minutes.
Boosted by the early goal Norton presses heavily during the opening 20 minutes with French pulling off several saves to deny the visitors
Town gradually dragged themselves back into the contest with Dane Luchford going close on 20 minutes and Damian Abel also seeing a headed effort palmed away by Chris Smith in the Norton goal.
The score was levelled five minutes later when Ashley Brown's header found Dave Soutan in space inside the six-yard box with Soutan making no mistake as he fired the ball past Smith on 25 minutes.
The next 20 minutes saw both sides chase the game with Harry Goodger and Jamie Sharman both going close for the visitors whilst, at the other end Craig Thompson always looked a threat when in possession abley supported by Dale Skelton and Damian Abel.
As the half-time whistle beckoned a Town move down the left side saw the ball fall to Luchford who's first time strike flew into the top right hand corner of Smith's goal to give the hoem side the advantage at the interval.
Three minutes into the second period and Norton were reduced to ten men as Referee Nick Dunn issued a second yellow card to Goodger following his challenge on the Town keeper.
Despite being a man down Norton continued to cause problems for the home side albeit that they lacked discipline the longer the game went on.
Abel went close again for Town on 65 minutes as his headed effort flew just wide of the target.
Town boss Justin Luchford rang the changes on 74 minutes, replacing Soutan with former Whitstable favouorite Jack Tanner with Aaron Quain coming on for the hardworking Thompson some two minutes later.
Norton very nearly levelled things on 77 minutes as Jamie Sharman, unmarked on the left, blasted his effort wide of the Town goal.
Luchford's substitutions paid dividends for the Lilywhites on 87 minutes when an impressive run from Quain down the left flank ended with a ball squared into the area for Abel to tap home with relative ease to open his scoring account for the season as well as securing the three points and sending the Town side to the top of the league with a 100% start to the season.
Never firing on all cylinders this is a Town side yet to demonstrate their full potential, Shane Hamshare looks more than confident in his new role at right-back with Dan Larkin, Kris Richardson and Ashley Brown all playing an effective role in the side.
Town are back in action at Salters Lane this coming Saturday (August 22nd) when they host Holmesdale in the 3 O'Clock kick-off, with the Town squad likely to include Michael 'Buster' Smissen who returns from holiday.
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