Deal will be out to avenge their defeat at Kennington earlier this season when the teams meet at the Charles Sports Ground.

The Hoops suffered a 1-0 loss at Homelands in late August and will be aiming to stop Dan Scorer’s men doing the double over them on Tuesday, December 27 (3pm kick-off) in the Southern Counties East Premier Division.

“I have got a lot of respect for Dan Scorer,” said Deal manager Steve King.

“He has done a brilliant job. We lost away in the league.

"It’s what I call a good-natured rivalry. There’s no bad blood but we will be looking to right the wrongs of what happened in August.”

There’s positive squad news ahead of the league encounter.

King said: “Kane Smith is pretty much back from injury. We have got an agreement to extend Alex Green’s loan for another month.

“There’s another player we will look to bring in that will strengthen us, probably not for the Kennington game but after that.

“Then January is a massive month for us - we have lots of league games, the Vase and the Kent Senior Trophy quarter-final.”

Deal’s home fixture last weekend against Bearsted was called off on the day of the game due to a frozen pitch.

King said: “The frost overnight on Friday was worse than predicted. I went to the ground at around 3pm on Friday afternoon and it looked okay.

“It was frustrating but we did everything we could.”

The Hoops have played 16 league fixtures so far.

But King said: “It’s an uncontrollable. I wouldn’t call it a concern if you cannot do anything about it.

“If we had played and won on Saturday, I think we could have gone second. I think we play after most teams on the 27th.

“We were really keen, more psychologically, just to get it on.

"Second down to about 10th, there’s nothing between anybody.”