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Captain Kane Smith is closing in on his injury comeback as manager Steve King targets his Deal return before the end of this season.
Defender Smith has only played once this term during the Hoops’ Isthmian South East opening-day 3-1 win over Lancing.
Smith is set to join promotion-chasing Southern Counties East Division 1 side Canterbury City.
He even struggled with injury as they won the Southern Counties East Premier Division title last campaign. Smith has remained captain throughout, though, and will temporarily reunite with Deal fans’ favourites Liam Hark and Connor Coyne at Canterbury.
King explained: “Kane trained twice last week so we didn’t want to rush him back in.
“But he’ll be with Canterbury from this Saturday on dual registration. There’s no massive time-frame on that but we’ll see if we can get him four or five games.
“I get on well with Danny Lawrence (City’s manager) and Harky and Coyney, they were massive parts of the club here, have gone over there. So, Kane will go there.
Hoops boss King on comeback win
“It’ll be good for Kane. He’s club captain and has remained club captain throughout, and he’s been absolutely fantastic.
“It’s really hard when you’re not playing. Also, we’re a non-contract club so he doesn’t get paid and he’s still here for pretty much every game.
“He still leads the group. He organised our fancy dress for Saturday and a lot of people wouldn’t do that sort of thing.
“He’ll go to Canterbury, who are competing to get promoted, so he’s going to have to go there and perform. It’s a bit different to under-23s football.
“We would love him to be back here and playing regularly before the end of the season so fingers crossed.”
Deal will host Herne Bay on Boxing Day (3pm) - something which King thinks might be a first of his managerial career - as they aim to secure a fourth successive win.
He said: “I normally go and watch football on Boxing Day! I’ll always be at a game - but I haven’t been involved in a Boxing Day game in my management career, I don’t think.
“So, I’m looking forward to it and I know the boys are.”
While King’s troops are well-placed on the fringes of the play-off places in eighth in their inaugural Isthmian South East season, Steve Lovell’s Herne Bay side have been surprise strugglers.
But King said: “They’re a very good side.
“They have still got a lot of their side that came eighth last year. They have got a lot of experience, a lot of good players, a striker (Mike Salako) that scores goals, and a very experienced manager. It’s going to be really tough.
“But we’re 13 points clear of them so it’s a game that’s going to be 50-50 on the day.
“We have strung three wins on the bounce together after a tough little run. If we can make it four, that’ll get us close to our safety target - I know that I keep banging on about it - but that’s important to me.
“Then, you never know. We might be able to start looking up.
“We don’t know how it’s going to go but, if Ramsgate, Margate and Sittingbourne run away with it, that fifth-place play-off spot might be attainable on lower points. Maybe there could be something like a 30-point gap between second and fifth. We’ll just keep going.
“But it was only three weeks ago that we had lost seven in eight so we won’t get carried away.
“Herne Bay is a massive local derby. The pitch won’t be much better, although it’s meant to be dry this week, so it won’t be quite as bad as what we finished in on Saturday, but it’s going to be a battle. There will be a big crowd.
“I’m delighted with a crowd just shy of 600 on the last Saturday before Christmas when everyone is meant to be finishing off their Christmas shopping and it was awful weather. I’m sure we’ll have another big crowd on Thursday.
“When you look at our bench, we’re going to be able to put out a side that will be ready to go.”
The Hoops end the calendar year at Lancing on Saturday (3pm) and King admits 2024 has been a great year for the club despite suffering FA Vase quarter-final heartache at Lincoln United.
King reflected: “It’s been an amazing year.
“This time last year, we weren’t even really thinking about getting promoted because Faversham were still very close to us in the league and we knew the resources that they had. We were still probably just aiming for the play-offs and I think we would have been pleased with that, even if we hadn’t gone up.
“We won [4-2] at Faversham on December 30 - and we brought Adam Molloy and Ashley Miller in after that. We went close in the FA Vase, which is still gutting. That haunts us a bit.
“We have now come up into this league and we’re comfortable so we do have to pinch ourselves sometimes.
“But we’re also not surprised because we knew we had a good group of players, we knew we got good crowds and there were lots of positives like that. It has been really good - but then, you just think of Boxing Day straight away.
“That’s probably why we have got to where we are because we don’t get ahead of ourselves too much. We just try and get better and win the next game.
“If you win a lot of games, it takes you where you need to be. Who knows where we will be by Christmas 2025?
“If we’re in a similar position to now, I’d probably be happy, to be honest.”
Left-back Jack Penny and forward Jamie Kennedy missed their Sheppey win due to injuries but should be fit enough to feature over the festive period.
