Veteran striker Danny Kedwell returns to Hawks

The 37-year-old parted company with the club shortly after the club’s National League South play-off loss to Dartford in July.

But after starting 2020/21 with Southern Counties East League club Hollands & Blair, the veteran striker has now resigned for Hawks and was at Westleigh Park yesterday to watch their FA Cup win against Cray Valley.

Hawks boss Paul Doswell said he never wanted to lose Kedwell, but the player had decided to leave to concentrate on keeping his football academy at Ebbsfleet United going through the pandemic.

Now Kedwell has been able to bring new coaches into his academy, he has freed himself up to return to the National League South club where he was second top scorer with 12 goals last season.

‘It’s fantastic news,’ said Doswell. ‘It’s something I was hoping could be sorted out five weeks ago.

‘Danny offers us something we haven’t got.

‘You only had to watch the (Cray Valley) game to see if he had been playing we would have held onto the ball for longer.

‘I didn’t want to see him leave, I’ve always thought Danny has a year or two left in him, but he had to put his business first.’

Kedwell signed for Hawks in the summer of 2019 from Ebbsfleet. After missing the start of the season through injury, he went onto become a regular - forming a prolific strike partnership with Jonah Ayunga.

Kedwell struck 11 times in the NL South in 2019/20 - including scoring in each of the first six league matches he started.

He has been playing regularly this term, starting 12 league and cup games for Gillingham-based Hollands and Blair and scoring four goals.

On his last appearance, against Chatham Town on October 31, his side lost 6-0 to the team knocked out of the FA Cup by Hawks last month.

Kedwell - who is FA Cup tied - is expected to be in the squad for Wednesday’s home National League South game with Dulwich Hamlet.