The Hoops face one of their toughest tasks of the season on Saturday when they travel to Gillingham to take on Southern Counties East League leaders Hollands & Blair.
Blair, who won 3-0 at the Charles Ground in early September, have led the table virtually all season and start the new year with an eight-point cushion over second-placed Greenwich Borough, who have a match in hand.
The Medway club have made a massive impact in what is their first season in the SCEL, having won promotion from the Kent Invicta League last season when they finished champions by a 14-point margin over second-placed Bearsted.
Hoops manager Derek Hares said: “People keep saying that Hollands & Blair will eventually blow up and Greenwich Borough and Ashford will overtake them, but I don’t think they will.
“They’ve been together a long time as a side, they’ve got two lads up front who score lots of goals together and they also don’t give many goals away, so that’s a recipe to win the league. But I’m confident that, win or lose, we’ll go there and make it difficult for them.”
Monday’s 4-1 win over Rochester United was the Hoops’ fourth victory in a row and Hares added: “It’s been a strange season really. We started off well but then we went through a spell where we still doing well in the cups but not in the league. It meant that five or six weeks we were down at the bottom of the league but, to everyone’s credit, we’ve got ourselves out of that position and we can go into the run of away games that we’ve got in January full of confidence.”
Jack Tanner and Chris Waymark are available this weekend after completing their suspensions but Grant Bagley and Charlie Dickens are both still banned.
Deal Reserves are back in action in the NRG Gym Kent County League this Saturday when they take on Division Two East bottom club Ashford United Reserves at the Charles Ground, with a 2pm kick off.
6 Responses
This WILL be tough. H&B score goals for fun at home and with them having lost only one at their place,a lot will be asked of the team(who,sometimes ,like a bad wine,dont seem to travel well! 😉 )
Lets hope they haven’t overdone things tonight celebrating New Year! 🙂
Good luck to all involved.
Demelza Hospice Care for Children wish the Hoops the very best of luck in there game against Hollands & Blair.
Looking forward to it very much.
We know it will be tough but Deal are very good as a group and never give in.
The lads will be ready that I am sure and they can definitely bring something back with them.
Not just their pride but who knows 3 points.
If they can get hold of the game early maybe a result is possible.Deal go into the game in fine form something that Del would’ve been hoping.
So why not if Deal do go ahead Blair could find it difficult.
I hope the lads can get a result and will be there to support.Wish the lads and staff all the best.
Come on Deal.!!!!
Well,good news ,bad news about being called off. Bad news,it means a midweek trip to darkest Medway later on this year,good news,we could have a full strength team to pick from! 😉
Yaeh and the real bad news is that while Deal don’t play.
All the confidence going into a big game may not be there when they need it
Having a game cancelled is not a good thing and I bet the players are gutted.
I know I am as a fan coz I was really looking forward to it.
Come on Deal.!!!!
I don’t think the confidence will go away just because the game was called off. If you haven’t got confidence before any game,then basically you shouldn’t be playing the game!
Good news about yesterday was that young Gregory looks like he’s back on the road to recovery,as he was named,along with Tanner and Ashman in the ressies squad.
Anybody else who had knocks also got the chance to get more recovery time.
Bring on Erith!