Deal Town manager Steve King describes 3-1 Isthmian South East home win over Littlehampton Town as best of the season so far

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