Derek Hares hopes Deal can maintain their fine away form this season when they visit Holmesdale this Saturday.

The fifth-placed Hoops have only lost once on the road this season and returned to action after a 16-day break with a 4-0 victory at K Sports on Monday in the Southern Counties East Premier Division.

Manager Hares said: “Any game in this league is difficult, particularly away from home, but our away record has been really good this season.

“I expect it will be a tough game, they have had some good results.

"But with our position, it’s a game that we should be looking to win.”

Deal have got at least one match in hand on everyone behind them - and four in hand on fourth-placed Erith who are only three points ahead.

Only second-placed Sheppey have played the same number of league matches as the Hoops.

Hares said: “There’s a little gap now, the top five or six have moved away a little bit. But all we can do is keep playing well and getting results.

“There’s still 20 games to go and a lot can happen. You can easily lose a couple of games but, hopefully, we can just keep going.

"Covid can come into play for us - but that goes for any team.”

Rene Rivera, Billy Munday, Troy Howard and Tom Chapman scored at K Sports as Deal extended their unbeaten run to six matches in all competitions, having scored 27 goals in the process.

Hares suggested: “I think our top scorer is probably Billy Munday, I think he has got 13.

"But obviously, Tom Chapman has been scoring as well.

“We don’t have a 30-goal-a-season out-and-out striker but we have been sharing the goals around pretty well.”

Jack Paxman missed Deal’s match at K Sports through work commitments but he is expected to return at Holmesdale, who are 11th.