Kwan Browne won’t take his eyes off the prize of Canterbury securing a place in the Wembley finals of the Hockey 5s Indoor Championships, despite the destiny of top-spot still being in their hands.

The city club’s men look well set to qualify for the showpiece play-offs on January 25 after claiming nine points from a possible 12 on the opening weekend of National Premier Division action at St George’s Park, Burton, before Christmas.

Player-coach Browne’s side enjoyed a 12-2 win against Holcombe, a 10-8 success against Reading and a 5-1 victory against Surbiton, although they reached the halfway stage with a 6-4 defeat against Sevenoaks, leaving them second, three points behind defending champions East Grinstead.

Browne said: “It hasn’t been the start to the season as a whole that we wanted but we always look forward to the indoor hockey where we are the one of the teams that other teams have to worry about.

“We played some good hockey on the first weekend and can go there and be confident.”

Canterbury have a five-point gap in the race for the semi-finals, with fifth-placed Team Bath Buccaneers having a goal difference which is 17 worse than the city club.

Canterbury begin against Bath at 10.30am on Saturday, knowing victory would open up an eight-point cushion in the race for the four places in the Championship play-offs at Wembley. They face sixth-placed Beeston at 4.30pm.

Browne said: “The most important thing of course is to make sure we make the top-four. That is the only thing that matters really. If we were to fail to do that, then that would be a big disappointment.”

They begin on Sunday against East Grinstead at 9am before finishing against fourth-placed Bowdon at noon.

Browne added: “The East Grinstead game could be a big game, depending on how Saturday went. It could be a first-place decider because our goal difference is as good as theirs.

“We’d have to win all four games this weekend to qualify top, which would be a great achievement. I don’t think we can rely on anyone else taking points off East Grinstead, we’d have to do it ourselves.”

He added: “So long as we qualify for the play-offs, it doesn’t particularly matter if we finish fourth or second – though of course we’d like to finish top.”