It will be a normal summer for Deal, manager Steve King insists - as he begins planning for Isthmian League football.

The Hoops will begin their 2024/25 campaign in Isthmian South East after winning the Southern Counties East League Premier Division title.

They haven’t competed at that level since the 1960s but, as he usually does, King will target a few quality additions to his loyal squad in the close season rather than making wholesale changes.

“It’ll be our normal summer,” he said. “We will assess and maybe look to bring in two, three or four players to areas that we feel we can strengthen.

“But these players have proven they are good enough to play Step 4 football. Providing they want to be here, which I’m sure they will, they will get that opportunity.

“If you look at what we brought in last summer, Rory Smith was the only real one and Elliott Moore - who actually ended up playing for Lydd against us.

“Then, we brought in Ife Oni in October from sort of nowhere. It just came from a phone call, and Adam Molloy and Ashley Miller in January when we lost a couple to injuries to just strengthen us up.

“We’ll add, of course we will, but we won’t be ripping it apart and building a new squad.”

Success in recent seasons has reaped rewards off the pitch with crowds on the rise at the Charles Sports Ground.

King said: “Our crowds would have been the second-highest average attendances in Isthmian South East, behind Ramsgate, because we’re averaging more than 500 now. We’re not going to go up and win it, of course we’re not, but we want to go up and be competitive. We want to keep the feelgood factor around the town and see where we can go. Why not? Why can’t we compete at that level?

“I have worked in SCEFL for a long time, so I’m looking forward to going to new grounds and meeting different managers.”

While the Hoops have been on the up, Dover have suffered back-to-back relegations and will be plying their trade just one division higher than their neighbours. But King, himself a Dover supporter, said: “I think that, in football, the most important thing is to just worry about yourself.

“Everybody that knows me knows that I have been a Dover fan for all of my life. I don’t take any pleasure in seeing them not going very well. But there’s always room for lots of football clubs to be successful in an area.

“Ultimately, we won’t worry about Dover or Margate, who could potentially be coming down into our league, we will just keep trying to do our best for Deal Town.

“Maybe in 15 years’ time, I might sit down and look at that.

“You just have to look at Lydd, who have come from nowhere. I don’t mean any disrespect to Lydd, but they were just a small, little, Step 6 club a couple of years ago in the middle of nowhere.

“Now, they have invested a lot of money and have got some outstanding footballers, like Kane Penn, Ronnie Dolan - who is an outstanding player - and Troy Howard. We couldn’t afford to keep him.

“This year it’s been Faversham, hasn’t it? But there’s always going to be someone that’s investing. We will look after our own ship and I think people respect us.”

King’s side lost 3-0 at Corinthian on Saturday but bounced back with a win on Tuesday night, beating Erith Town 2-0 at home.

Wes Hennessey put Deal in front after just a minute against Erith and Jamie Kennedy made it two in the second half.

The Hoops end their season on Saturday at home to Stansfeld.