As Deal Town prepare for their first season at Step Four for longer than many of their supporters can remember, boss Steve King has been busy since his side clinched their first SCEFL title in more than a quarter of a century. 

Unlike Tommy Sampson’s title winning side of 2000, King’s side has earned a place in next season’s Isthmian League, and the manager has been busy since his side were officially crowned Champions at the end of April. 

“It really is a busy time for managers,” he told KSN this week. “People don’t see a lot of the work that goes in as it’s mainly behind the scenes, but it’s been nonstop as we prepare for the start of the new season, and organising everything that goes with that – it has been a busy few weeks, frustrating at times with lots to do, but as pre-season for us gets closer, we’re looking forward to get back into it!” 

The Deal boss has been able to retain the majority of the players who were successful last season and he admitted, “That was the main priority. To be fair the boys have been very loyal over the past couple of years when we haven’t been promoted, so I wasn’t overly concerned from that point of view, but until you have those conversations, you’re never quite sure as when you win a League there is always interest in your players from other Clubs, so I am delighted that every player we wanted to keep and were part of our plans has agreed to stay and it gives us a real good basis going into Step Four football.” 

“We are reasonably close to announcing some additions as we’re being very specific with our recruitment in targeting certain areas where we want to bring in two or three real quality players to improve the squad, but it’s certainly not an overhaul as we’re not going to rip apart what did so well last year, but we are hoping to be able to get a couple of influential signings across the line that we think will give us a good chance of pushing on!” 

“It is a step into the unknown for the Club, but in the dressing room there is a lot of experience of football at this level. Most of the players have played at this level, some have played an awful lot at this level.”

“I’ve certainly watched a lot of it and been around working at that level before as have my coaching staff. In a way it’s a step into the unknown, but I think we’re quite comfortable with what we’re going to – there are a lot of local sides in there which we know a lot about, we know a lot about the players; the managers in those Leagues we’ve come up against regularly over the past four or five years – it is a step into the unknown, but also there is also a sense of familiarity in the side and the opponents that we are going to be coming up against.” 

“The knowledge will be useful and give us a little bit of a head start. What is sightly unknown for us is some of the Sussex sides, although we have played Littlehampton and Three Bridges in the Vase and Cup in the last few years, so it is not that they are completely unknown to us.”

“There are the sides that have been promoted through SCEFL recently, it does make it slightly easier coming in and not completely new – we have a decent basis to start from!” 

“Momentum is always useful when you go up – new grounds and new teams is very exciting. As a Club we are used to winning games which helps, but it is going to be an incredibly tough League – you only have to look at what the local sides are doing and the players that they are bringing in to see how very competitive it is going to be.”

“It is something that we are looking forward to and we certainly are not going to go in with any fear…” 

“I think most people would recognise that the top end of SCEFL – maybe the top four or five from last year – would cope in the League that we are going into, and we won a fair number of games against those teams.”

“Certainly the Faversham team last year on paper would have been one the favorites to win the Isthmian South East last year so it won’t hold any fears for us, but it is a step up and is going to be difficult, but it’s very exciting and I can’t wait for our pre-season to start when the boys come back in next week given that we are anticipating playing in the FA Cup on August 3rd.”