It’s the start of a new era at Deal this weekend and manager Steve King hopes a bumper crowd is there for the occasion.

On Saturday, the Hoops will kick-off their Southern Counties East Premier Division season against Glebe, with the sides having finished fourth and third, respectively, last campaign.

King replaced long-serving boss Derek Hares at the helm this summer following his retirement.

He has been thrilled with the club’s home gates during pre-season and hopes plenty come along to watch the first competitive game of their new campaign.

“Our pre-season gates have been brilliant really,” said King, whose team thrashed Sporting Bengal 9-1 on Tuesday.

“We have had three crowds over 400.

“Glebe is always a big game for us, they were third and we were fourth last season. I’m sure people will look out for the result.

“Our support at home is strong and so I would expect a good crowd for the first game of the season.”

King says the Hoops will be without some key players for the Glebe game but he remained tight-lipped about the identity of those missing.

“We are pretty clear with how we are going to go,” explained King, who is assisted by Dean Hill, speaking on Monday.

“But the boys have an opportunity on Tuesday to stake a claim if they do well.

“We have a couple missing on Saturday still, with the SCEFL starting so early.

“But we should be pretty strong, provided we get through this week.”

Deal had not planned to play a friendly this week but, with their friendly against New Romney called off amid the heatwave, King felt it was important to get more minutes into some players’ legs.

He said: “We are looking forward to Saturday against Glebe.

“To be honest, we didn’t really want a friendly on Tuesday night but we lost one because of the heatwave.

“A few boys missed Saturday and they would have gone two weeks without a game which wouldn’t have been ideal.

“Obviously, it’s a difficult game to start for us on Saturday but we are all looking forward to it.”

The Hoops were depleted at the weekend as they lost 4-1 to Isthmian South East Sevenoaks, Alfie Foster heading in a consolation goal as Sevenoaks won the Alan Barrow Cup.

King conceded: “It was a little bit disappointing in terms of [the] result but we had a lot of key players missing - a couple on holiday and a few injuries we rested.

“But they are a good side and will be competing at the top-end of the league above.

“The key thing was not to pick up any major injuries.”

Boss Harry Hudson has already made quite the impact at Sevenoaks since leaving Glebe to join them last season and King added: “Harry is a good manager.

“Obviously, we pitted wits against each other when he was at Glebe. He has invested well again this summer.

“It would be nice for them to have come up against our strongest side, but fair play to them.

"They played well.”