Steve King fears he may have to prioritise certain competitions if his Deal side fall further behind the eight ball.

Deal have progressed to the last 32 of the FA Vase, remain in the Challenge Cup and are edging towards the higher echelons of the Southern Counties East Premier Division.

But the Hoops, who saw last Tuesday’s Challenge Cup clash against Staplehurst and their scheduled home weekend league game with Sutton Athletic fall victim to the weather, already have four matches in hand on the top three.

“We have done well in the cups in the last couple of years and that has a knock-on effect,” said Deal manager King. “I’m not concerned at the minute.

“The concern is we want to progress in the Challenge Cup and the Vase - but we might get into the position where we need to prioritise. That’s not in my nature.

“But, especially with the Challenge Cup being a two-legged Semi-Final, it, sometimes, enters into my thoughts because that’ll take up two extra dates.

“But I think we’re okay at the minute. We have got a squad used to playing Saturday-Tuesday.

“The lads are all fit. Our levels have been outstanding.

“They’re a fit bunch and we only have two players over 30.”

Deal have been in fine form but King could see some positives from back-to-back postponements, having given his players last week off.

He explained: “Sutton will have to travel down on a Tuesday night now.

“That might be difficult for them. When you lose home games (to the weather), it’s not always a complete disaster. Our pitch should be fine come next Tuesday.

“Then, we have a game on 3G after Christmas. It’s okay.

“Somebody told me the other day we’ve dropped out of the play-offs. That’s the exact reason I don’t worry about it - because there’s nothing you can do if you’re not playing!”

The Hoops had done everything they could to get Saturday’s scheduled fixture against Sutton Athletic on. Their efforts were to no avail, though.

“We tried our very best to get the game on but there was just relentless rain on Saturday morning and a lot of rain on the surface,” said King.

“We even tried to ask Sutton to travel down but, understandably, they wanted a decision made. Our groundsman said it’s the wettest November and December he can remember.

“It’s just frustrating because we’ve been in great form. There’s the added frustration, with all the 3G pitches teams in our area play on, people forget how much rain we’ve had.

“Hythe are in a similar situation.

“But that’s life. There’s worse things going on in the world.”

Defender Elliott Moore has left the club. Having started the campaign on dual registration with Folkestone, he ended up with the Isthmian Premier club a lot more.

New Invicta manager Andy Drury has allowed Moore to move on but, with the Hoops having strengthened their backline in the meantime, Moore has signed for divisional rivals Kennington.

King explained: “He’s a player we rate highly.

“He ended up with Folkestone a fair amount and we have brought in Ife Oni and Joe Reeves has been match-fit.

“It was a tricky one where we couldn’t offer Elliott the minutes. Hopefully, he will get those minutes at Kennington.

“We will keep tracking his progress. Unfortunately for Elliott, it was just a matter of timing.

“With him being at Folkestone, we had to replace him. It’s a bit of a sad one with Elliott.

“He’s a great lad and a great player, and we wish him all the best.”

Deal will hope to return to league action this Saturday at Rusthall, followed by Tuesday’s rearranged Challenge Cup clash against Staplehurst at the Charles Sports Ground and a home league match against Bearsted on December 23.

Bizarrely, the Hoops thumped Rusthall 7-3 in the league at home last month and have played the Bears as recently as October 31, in the Challenge Cup, and November 21 in the league.

King said: “It’s a strange run where we’re playing Rusthall and Bearsted in the league.

“I always like going to Rusthall - they have nice facilities there. They scored three goals against us last time so we will need to deal with their attacking threat.

“We have Staplehurst in the Challenge Cup as well.

“It’s another big week.”