Canterbury City manager Keith Bird speaks ahead of facing former club Holmesdale this weekend

Canterbury City manager Keith Bird’s first meeting against former club Holmesdale has come around quicker than he would have liked.

Bird will come up against familiar faces this Saturday when his new side host Holmesdale, where Bird had been chairman prior to joining City as first-team boss last month.

Looking ahead to the Southern Counties East Premier Division match at Salters Lane, Bird said: “Ideally, I would have preferred not to have played Holmesdale this early in my tenure at Canterbury.

“Obviously, I spent just under a year at Holmesdale as their chairman.

“They’re a great bunch of people at Holmesdale - from the committee, to the manager (Lee Roots) and the staff, and the players. I think very highly of all of them.

“I would prefer we were not playing them quite so early - just out of respect, really.

"But they have got a great manager, a great management team and some really talented players in that squad.

“I think it’s going to be a really interesting game and, hopefully, an entertaining game for the fans.

“I’m looking forward to seeing them all and shaking their hands.”

City have been in improved form under Bird but have had an 11-day break following their 1-0 defeat at title-chasing Sheppey last Tuesday.

They have pulled away from the bottom two in the league but City, who are 15th, have played more matches than the two immediately below them.

Bird conceded: “We would have rather have kept going, with a bit of momentum. Our tails were up.

“But, at the same time, we have been carrying a few injuries. We’ve never had the full squad available since I took over.”

Bird, assisted by Dan Lawrence, Sam Wilson and goalkeeping coach Ada Gower, have kept together much of the squad Lawrence and Wilson had been