Deal Town ended a run of midweek games by thrashing Faversham Town 4-1 and next head for a weekend away to play Jersey Bulls in Isthmian South East

Deal Town’s fixture schedule is about to change for the better.

The Hoops have played midweek games in 11 of the last 12 weeks - a relentless schedule that has meant utilising the squad to the maximum as they look to stay competitive.

Steve King’s side thrashed Faversham Town 4-1 in Isthmian South East at home on Tuesday night, Jacob Strouts, Ashley Miller and two-goal Owen Wilkinson scoring, and make an overnight stop to play Jersey Bulls on Saturday.

“To play 11 out of 12 midweeks is probably pretty much unheard of, unless you’re in the Champions League!” joked the Deal boss before the Faversham win.

“We’re going to go from one extreme to the other. It’s a huge benefit. It means that you can prepare for each game properly.

“Obviously, when you’re on a run like we’ve been on, you’re doing the best you can in terms of your preparation, but from a Saturday to a Tuesday, you’ve got two days, so it’s difficult.

“We’re looking forward to being able to train properly again.

“It’s really hard to train when you’ve got so many games because you need to look after players.

“You can’t have a difficult 90 minutes on Saturday, a difficult 90 minutes on Tuesday, and then train them really hard on a Thursday. I believe that becomes counterproductive.

“It’s going to feel a bit different, a little bit strange. It brings different issues from a management point of view because it’s a little bit harder to keep players happy.

“You don’t necessarily need to carry such a big squad because knocks and niggles recover, and you don’t necessarily need to rotate your side around like we have been because obviously we’ve had so many games.

“There are some issues that way, but obviously in terms of preparation and things like that, it makes it a lot