Deal Town boss Steve King delighted he can count on ‘outstanding’ defender Alex Green for the 2023/24 Southern Counties East League Premier Division campaign

Teenage defender Alex Green has handed Deal a big boost by committing to the club - but boss Steve King hopes it’ll be a largely quiet summer.

Green, who will turn 20 in June, proved a big hit for the Hoops, joining permanently at the start of March after a successful loan spell from Dover.

And he will remain with Deal for their 2023/24 Southern Counties East League Premier Division promotion push.

King said: “We’re looking for a pretty boring and uneventful summer, to be honest.

“We’ve had some big news with Alex Green committing for next season. That’s a big boost because he’s been outstanding.

“We have targeted two or three other players that we feel can strengthen us. But we finished 20 games unbeaten in the league. The vast majority of the squad will stay.

“If we can add in one or two areas, that’s, ideally, what we want to do.

“I don’t think there will be a huge amount of news coming up from us over the summer, which will be a great thing for me.”

Green was sent off in Deal’s Kent Senior Trophy Final defeat to Punjab, though, and therefore will have a one-match ban to serve at the start of the new season.

While Deal’s first team came third, narrowly missing out on promotion, and suffered cup final heartache, the reserves have enjoyed success too.

They will face Rusthall Reserves at Sheppey in the Kent Intermediate Cup Final next Wednesday, May 10 and King, who also leads Deal’s Kent Youth League under-16s who won their league, won’t be afraid of looking at any of those players in pre-season if he thinks they’re good enough.

“That’s really important to me,” noted King, who brought reserve player Josh Byford off the bench for a goalscoring debut during the last league match of the 2022/23 season against Sutton