It’s the second “landlords v tenants” clash of the season at the Charles Ground on Saturday as Deal Town take on groundsharers Canterbury City again (3pm).
Their first meeting at the end of August, when City were the “home” side, ended in a 3-1 victory for Deal thanks to goals from Sam Wilson (2) and Connor Coyne, and manager Derek Hares knows that a similar result this weekend could see the Hoops jump to in fifth place in the Southern Counties East League table.
He said: “We’re already on 29 points and we’ve not had that many at this stage for a number of years, and if we can go into the second half of the season in the top six we’ve got to be happy with that.”
For their part, Canterbury are currently in 13th position, five places below the Hoops, but City would also be challenging for a top-five place if they hadn’t drawn six of their 18 leagues games so far – the highest number of “one-pointers” in the league.
Hares added: “We beat Canterbury earlier in the season but that means nothing because they’ve had a lot of changes in their side since then and it will be a battle on Saturday, it always is against them.”
Lee Scott returns to the Hoops’ squad after missing last weekend’s 4-2 win over Rusthall but Steve Butcher, Charlie Walsh and Luke Bigginton are all still injured.