Ten games into the Isthmian South-East season and Deal Town following Tuesday’s one-nil win over Ashford Town sees Steve King’s side “comfortable” in mid-table as they welcome Margate to the Charles Ground this weekend. 

Ash Miller’s goal on Tuesday sealed the Hoops’ fifth home win in a row in all competitions ,a fact that manager King was rightly proud of when he spoke to KSN this week. “ 

“Tuesday was a really big win for us. I know that when people look at League tables, they’ll say that Ashford haven’t had a great start, but they are a strong side and when you look at the players they have and the runs that they have had in the Cups, the fact that they have also beaten us the last five times we have played them, Tuesday was always going to be a tough one for us.”

“So, to keep a clean sheet, to get a win, was an important night for us and we of course were delighted with the result!” 

Deal have won five and lost five of their ten League games thus far. “There’s two ways to look at it,” King said, “To draw a game is a lot closer to losing it than it is to win it.”

“You have to draw three to get one win (three points), so we are always a side that try to win games. The fact that we struggle a little bit more defensively, but score a lot of goals means that our games are more open, so you could probably take out nil-nil draws from our potential results!”

“But we clearly would love to turn some of the defeats into draws, but we will certainly never stop trying to chase and to win games. I am sure that we will end up drawing some games but, it won’t be through planning!” 

“Having won on Tuesday, with Crowborough coming to us next Tuesday, if we did draw on Saturday it wouldn’t be a poor result for us against a strong Margate side.”

“Two more home games and the aim has to be to keep the run going. I think that any side that wants to do well, the home form is essential – no side can be successful without it – so having won the game Tuesday, it’s not necessarily taken the pressure off us, but if we had been beaten by Ashford, and with them in good form, it would probably put a bit more pressure on us, but we can really look forward to it now!” 

“We’ve made a fair start to the League. I wouldn’t say that I am happy because we are an ambitious group and we have probably played a bit better than our League place if I am honest, but I think it is a fair reflection to our start to the season.”

“I think that if you look at our games, I think that we have won the games that we would have expected. All of our defeats have been understandable – Sittingbourne, Faversham, Merstham, Three Bridges and Ashford away – and we have beaten the sides that we targeted and expected.”

“The big bonus was our Cup run that we had that brought in some really important finance and having won on Tuesday, I would say that we are satisfied with the start… but it’s only the start!”