Dean Grant is loving working with Whitstable manager Marcel Nimani again.

The pair enjoyed great success together at quadruple-winning Sheppey last season, frontman Grant scoring the winner as the Ites won the Kent Senior Trophy. Nimani was assistant manager under boss Ernie Batten.

They have since reunited at The Belmont.

While Grant would always prefer to lead the line, such is his respect for Nimani - who took the helm in October - he’s open to playing out wide under him, too.

“My preferred position would always be No.9 up top,” said Grant, who reached the Isthmian League Division 1 South play-off Final and the League Cup Final under then-boss Ray Turner at Faversham in 2016.

“If anyone else had tried to put me on the wing, I would have had a stinker!

“But I started off as a winger. As much as football is changing, that role has never really changed.

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“I’m better off not being instructed - not because I know it all, but managers constantly on the sidelines can complicate and confuse things.

“I had a chat with Marcel in the season. As much as I want to play striker, I will be a winger if needed.

“I’ve been quite open with him and that shows the level of respect I have for him.

"Apart from Ray Turner, I don’t think I’ve respected someone I have worked under as much as Marcel.

“It’s a blessing to work with him at the back-end of my career. But there’s a bit of ‘What if he had been manager or assistant manager when I was in my prime?’.”

Whitstable kept alive their slim hopes of a second-placed Southern Counties East Premier Division finish on Saturday with a 3-1 home win over lowly K Sports.

Grant reflected: “We, obviously, need to win to try and hang on to any slender hopes that other teams might slip up. Then we’re in with a chance for second.

“The previous weekend, we had a bad result in a big game [losing 2-1 at Phoenix]. But on Saturday, we won comfortably in ourselves.

"We took some good chances and still missed some good chances so, yes, it was good overall.”

Grant bagged a brace - his second coming after more than 20 successive passes by the Oystermen without a K Sports player touching the ball - while winger Jefferson Aibangbee added a goal to his two assists.

On his own contribution, he said: “I’m buzzing with it.

“I have been doing well, although I’ve had a niggling injury for the last couple of months. So I’ve not started as much as I would have liked to.

“But my goal contributions have still been pretty good.”

He could have had a hat-trick, too.

They were awarded a penalty, which Rodney Adamon-Eruotor failed to convert, only for Sheppey loanee Aibangbee to make it 3-1, minutes later.

Grant, now 32, said: “We had a penalty and I’d scored two.

“We have a designated penalty taker and I don’t normally take penalties but we did have a little discussion.

“Unfortunately, we missed that.

"But then, we had a counter-attack and it was in our hands then.”

Whitstable were due to visit Holmesdale on Wednesday, only for the match to be postponed after morning snow.

They host Lordswood this Saturday, and will face a reunion with former reserves manager Matt Barman.

It means the games keep coming thick and fast, but that’s just the way Grant likes it.

“As soon as you come off the pitch, scoring one, two or three, you cannot wait to play again,” he said.

“But you have to take the highs with the lows.

“There’s been times where confidence has not been there. Then, you get a goal and the spark is back there again.”

Despite Grant’s double, Aibangbee was named their player-of-the-match in the K Sports victory.

Grant said: “He’s had to overcome quite a big hurdle.

“I don’t know all the details of what happened at Sheppey, but what happened has happened.

"He’s starting to find form.”

Now a dad-of-two, Grant is also embracing Whitstable’s one-club philosophy since they put down a new 3G pitch last summer, with plenty of youngsters watching their first-team fixtures.

“It’s about representing the club,” he said.

“Who knows what level the club can get to in the years to come?

"It’ll be exciting to see.”

Midfielder Jordan Wells has signed for Division 1 promotion-chasers Snodland.