Deal Town boss Derek Hares says his side need to cut out individual errors following Saturday’s 5-3 defeat to Welling.

The Hoops found themselves 3-0 down at half-time, despite entering the game having conceded just one goal in their previous three outings.

“It was defensive mistakes really,” admitted Hares.

“We’ve been good at the back over the last few weeks really so it was a bit of a surprise.

“We never got going in the first half, second half was a lot better but when you’re 3-0 down it’s always going to be an uphill struggle.

“When we got it back to 3-2 it looked like we could get to 3-3, then they went up the other end and made it 4-2.

“We got it to 4-3 and then we had a great chance to make it 4-4.

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“Their last goal came while we were pushing high for an equaliser.”

A strong second-half response saw Deal threaten an impressive comeback, with substitutes Jack Penny and Joe Reeves providing a goal and an assist, respectively.

Hares added: “We do have to start faster, we had good preparation.

“It just didn’t happen and it goes like that sometimes, we made a couple of changes at half-time and the second half was completely different.

“We’ve been pleased with how we’ve been defending.

“Saturday came out of the blue really and at least three of the goals were down to defensive errors, we just need to cut them out.

“Joe (Reeves) has not been available so far this season, he’s just come back so that was a bonus for him.”

Deal visit Hollands & Blair in the FA Vase on Saturday, with the teams having played out a 1-1 draw in the league in August.

“We’ve got a massive game this week in the Vase so we have to pick ourselves up and go again, Hollands & Blair will be a tough game,” said Hares.

“We need to play better than we did in the first half on Saturday.

“We’ve got no Dave Pilcher this week or Josh Maughan.

“Alfie Foster is 50/50, he had been due to play on Saturday but felt his thigh muscle in the warm-up.”

In regards to potential incomings, Hares insists he remains pleased with the options at his disposal.

He explained: “We’re always looking but we’ve been happy with the squad, I wouldn’t say that’s a priority.

“We just need to cut out those individual mistakes and we should be fine.”

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