Manager Steve King has outlined some of the challenges his Deal players - old and young - will face next season.

The Hoops will aim to build on a productive inaugural Isthmian South East campaign, having finished seventh.

While the main men at Deal - many of whom already had plenty of previous Isthmian League experience - largely delivered on their return to Step 4 football, King also wasn’t afraid to put his faith in youth.

Youngsters Morgan Page, Zak Hammond and Owen Wilkinson were among those to get senior opportunities.

“It’s difficult when you come up,” said King, who has re-signed James Tonkin as their No.1 for 2025/26 as keeper Adam Molloy departs.

“There’s always been this idea that teams from the top-end of the SCEFL Premier Division will come up and instantly be competitive. But we have seen Phoenix Sports and Corinthian come up and struggle, albeit their squads did change a bit.

“What we have done has given all our players a boost.

“We massively delivered, getting promoted, and have backed that up at Step 4. Now, they need to back it up again.

“For the young players, the challenge for them is they’re not young players in our eyes anymore. They’re now first-team players.

“As for our more experienced players who might not have played a lot of Step 4 football because they have been with us, they have seen what the level is like.

“Their challenge is to find that consistency because, Tom Chapman and Jack Paxman apart, we’ve probably not had that.”

Tonkin became the Hoops’ first summer signing last week and will need little introduction to the Charles Sports Ground faithful, having racked up more than 200 first-team appearances since his debut at the age of 18.

The keeper, now 27, returns after a spell away from the game because of work commitments.

At the other end of the pitch, King will also hope to see more of Aaron Millbank with the striker, 30, having been out due to injury since late October.

“We lost Aaron, who scored 25 goals last year, and, 15 games in, we lost Billy Munday [to Ramsgate],” said Deal’s boss. “He got 20 goals last year.

“In the summer, you have got time to replace them, but a lot of that was unplanned. I know Tom Chapman did brilliantly but, really, that left us without an experienced out-and-out striker.

“We have got a lot of goals from different areas and that’s a good sign. That’s been pleasing, carrying a threat from the whole side.

“We have been taking it slowly with Aaron so, hopefully, we can have him fit and firing for pre-season.

"That will be like a new signing for us.”

Deal are on the hunt for a new first-team physio to replace Tony Henderson at the club.

Email Deal manager King at stevenjking29@hotmail.com for further information.