Deal Town achieved arguably their best result of the season in midweek as they succeeded where the two South East highfliers have failed – winning at in form Merstham leaving manager Steve King delighted with his side’s progress.

Steve King’s side not only won but came from behind in the second period after trailing 2-1 to beat the side who were top of the form table and had recently beaten both Ramsgate and Sittingbourne. 

Reflecting on his side’s success, a very happy manager told us, “It was a really good team performance on Tuesday night!”

The win lifts last year’s SCEFL Champions into the division’s top ten. King went on, “We took a lot of confidence from the win that we got at Sheppey last weekend. It was a tough afternoon for everyone coming so soon after the untimely death of Ernie Batten.”

“I didn’t know Ernie brilliantly well, but obviously he’d been part of Kent football for a very long time. He was a really top fella and the job he did at Sheppey to build the whole Club up from where it was, was remarkable.”

“I remember playing them in a friendly when I first came here, and they were then in the League below us. To see what has been done at that Club and to see the infrastructure is brilliant.”

“We wanted to be very respectful last Saturday – we were so respectful, we let them score in the first minute! But we also wanted to go there and show what we are about as we had been on a poor run form, and I thought on the day we did that brilliantly.” 

“Sheppey are a bit of a barometer for us as in SCEFL, we couldn’t get near them so to have beaten them home and away and taken six points off them after being promoted is really pleasing.” 

“I think sides may have underestimated us a little bit because we had been in sticky form, but we know that when we put it together, we can match most sides in this League and I think that we more than showed that at Merstham on Tuesday as I thought that we didn’t just win the game, we were well worthy of the three points.”

“It certainly wasn’t a smash and grab, I thought we were excellent all night and deserved the win!” 

“We reflected on the win after the game and concluded that probably for us Ramsgate, Sittingbourne and Burgess Hill look a step above everyone else in terms of their quality and depth of squad, but past that we haven’t really seen much of a muchness in any of the other sides.”

“In truth, that probably goes down to teams who are fifth bottom where I don’t think that there is an awful lot of difference between fifth bottom and fifth top – I think the difference is just level of consistency and being able to churn out the level of performance needed.”

“And for our first season in the division, that is what we have struggled with; at times we have shown that we could be at the top end whilst other times we have struggled a little bit and that’s something we need to work on as a group!” 

“Our number one aim was to stay in the division this year and obviously we secured that reasonably early in terms of our points total.”

“Now we want to finish as high as we can – we have six games to go and I think we have shown in the last week that we are not going to go on our holidays early, we are going to go right to the end as we always have done in my tenure at the Club – we never stop, even when there isn’t much to play for on paper and if we can possibly secure a top ten finish that will be a massive achievement!” 

“I was asked if it’s a “nice” change not to be under the sort of pressure we have been at this time of year when we have been challenging for things.”

“In truth, the answer is yes and no!” King explained.

“This time last year, I was inundated with interviews and saying this is why we want to be in football; we want to be involved in semi-finals and chasing League titles, but it has been very nice to secure our target points reasonably early and not have that constant pressure going into every game.”

“I certainly have enjoyed wins more than I did last year –every win last year felt like ticking another one off, whereas this year we have had to earn them all and I’ve certainly got more enjoyment!” 

“Mixed emotions really as I don’t want every season now in my career to be dead and buried by the middle of March, but I’m certainly pleased that we are not one of the sides fighting relegation and desperately trying to stay up!” 

Deal returns to the Charles Ground this weekend to face the resurgent Three Bridges who are still eyeing a Play Off berth.

“It will be hard to make many changes after a result like Tuesday’s,” a very happy manager told us.

“We have a nice depth about the squad with the youngsters coming in and doing well – we had two eighteen-year-olds in the defence at Merstham who were both outstanding!”

“Hopefully Alfie Foster and Ash Miller who missed Tuesday will be involved so we should have a pretty good squad to choose from ahead of another tough game against another side chasing the Play Offs!” 

Picture supplied by Deal Town.