Boss Steve King described Deal’s weekend home win against Littlehampton as their best of the season.

After a three-game losing run in all competitions, the Hoops found themselves without several players and also had defenders Jack Paxman and Josh Vincent suspended for their Isthmian South East match.

They even lost midfielder Ben Chapman and young forward Wes Hennessey to first-half injuries, too, but ran out 3-1 winners.

King reflected: “It was probably our best win of the season so far, considering the circumstances with injuries, suspension and unavailability.

“Responding from three defeats on the bounce, it was a really positive day.

“It was a day where, if the result went our way, we would be looking up the table and, if not, we could have been looking down.

“So, getting the three points was really positive.”

Teenage right-sided player Ife Oni again bagged a brace after forward Archie Hatcher broke the deadlock just before the hour mark.

But King revealed: “It’s just frustrating that we cannot keep Ife fully fit!

“I had a few questions about why I didn’t start him, but he’s been nursing a muscular injury and he’s struggling to get through 90 minutes. Knowing we didn’t have a huge amount of attacking options to come off the bench, we decided to keep him on the bench.

“He had to come off the bench for Wes Hennessey. But even in the last five minutes, he was starting to struggle a little bit.

“He’s not been out of the side for performance reasons - it’s fitness. But he’s only 19, it’s easy to forget that.”

Deal’s league win came after a much-changed squad put in a good performance in a 2-0 Velocity Cup defeat at Hastings last midweek despite losing young defender Zak Hammond to what King felt had been an unlucky second-half red card.

King said: “I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit fearful when I saw their side!

“We were much-changed but they had only made two changes. We missed a couple of opportunities at 1-0 to potentially take it to penalties and their second came late on.

“No disrespect to Hastings but I think the clubs at the top-end of our league would do well in their division. Sittingbourne have beaten Dover twice this season - at Dover - as an example.

“As much as we expected Hastings to be a step up, actually, it wasn’t. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure they were not at full throttle, but we just matched our Ramsgate and Margate performance levels.

“It’s a little bit like SCEFL, I’m sure Faversham and VCD would be doing well in our league.

“Before the game, we felt we could do without it - but it was a good night.

“The sending-off was a bit unlucky and playing with 10 men didn’t exactly help. But we played well at a nice ground so it wasn’t too bad.”

Deal will visit Eastbourne Town this weekend before Tuesday’s home league fixture against Ashford on Tuesday.

On the trip to Eastbourne, King said: “I’ve only been there once, that was watching a game about 15 years ago! That was a Step 4 game.

“Obviously, we have played them at home and we beat them, but they have had some good results and it will be a good test. They beat Herne Bay the other week and only lost 2-1 to Ramsgate.

“Similar to Littlehampton, who we have just done the double over, I would categorise as: Expect to win at home, will be tricky away, and would be a very good win. We need another five or six wins to be safe.

“We want to get them as quickly as possible and that’s our focus.”

Winger Ashley Miller has returned from an extended break while Paxman and Vincent should also be available.