Deal want to see their hard work on the training ground amid an enforced break pay dividends.

Steve King’s Hoops, who beat Kennington 5-0 on Tuesday in the Southern Counties East Premier Division, have a busy January ahead.

They visit Welling Town on Monday (3pm kick-off) before three further league fixtures in the month.

Deal also have an FA Vase Fourth-Round tie at Corsham on January 14 and a Kent Senior Trophy Quarter-Final against Division 1 side Snodland Town a week later to look forward to.

They are coming into the busy period after a 17-day spell without a match due to wintry conditions, and the Deal boss wants to see what they have been working on in the meantime come to fruition.

King said: “To be fair, we have done quite a lot of work in the last four or five weeks.

“We gave the boys the weekend off. It was difficult because we couldn’t do anything.

“It’s a little bit frustrating but we cannot control the weather and I try not to complain about things we cannot control.

“We just have to crack on.”

While the festive period normally sees plenty of football, with the way Christmas falls, there’s fewer games this year than usual.

“I’m happy playing any game at any time,” said King, who has re-signed midfielder Troy Howard from Margate on a one-month loan.

“Ordinarily, depending on how it falls, we have had a game between Christmas and the new year.

“Could we have done more midweeks? I don’t know.

“But you don’t want to get to the end of the season with no games. The SCEFL does a good job with fixtures, it’s swings and roundabouts.

“I wouldn’t have minded some more games but we should be fresh and ready to go.”

Howard netted for the Hoops against Kennington in front of a bumper crowd of 703 to round off their victory after two-goal Tom Chapman, Alfie Foster and Jack Penny had earlier struck.