Southern Counties East side Deal Town are back training with trialists looking to impress and new signings close

Deal Town manager Steve King is closing in on some new additions to his team.

The Hoops returned to training last week with a few trialists out to impress and King is looking to add a couple of faces to the squad before the new campaign begins.

With most of last season’s squad staying on there’s no major overhaul needed, but there are areas where King

feels his side do need to strengthen.

He said: “We have a few players that we are looking at. You can look at players in training sessions, but until you put them into a game situation you are never quite sure.

“It has been a positive start, we had all the boys back in that we have retained, we have had good numbers, around 30 at every session, we are in a good situation to move forward.

“We are close on a couple (of new players) that we are waiting for, we have made offers and those offers remain open at the minute.

“We are hoping to maybe get one or two of those across the line but it has been a fairly difficult market this summer in terms of the finances and with our location. But we are patient and we won’t panic into making signings for the sake of it.

“We make sure that people are going to last the whole season and contribute for 50-60 games.

“We are looking at adding an attacking player, an additional forward.

“We took Lenny Atherton on loan from Folkestone at the end of last season to cover that area.

“We need a body there to replace, then we are looking at full-back areas as well.”

Deal begin their pre-season matches on Tuesday, July 4 at home to Minster while they’ve just added a home game with Dover on Tuesday, July 25 to their schedule.

The list also includes a trip to Margate (Saturday, July 8), a home game against a Gillingham XI on Tuesday, July 11, away to