Deal will aim to combat fire with fire when they visit Southern Counties East Division 1 high-fliers Lydd in the Challenge Cup.

The Hoops, beaten 3-2 in the Premier Division at home to Stansfeld on Saturday despite first-half goals from Ben Chapman and Connor Coyne, face fifth-placed Lydd, who have scored 23 goals this season in all competitions, tonight.

It will be a stiff test of Deal’s defence which has conceded 19 goals from 13 league fixtures.

“When we use the term ‘defence’, it’s about the whole team,” said Deal manager Steve King. “We attack as a team and defend as a team.

“When we concede goals from set-pieces, it’s not about the back four or the goalkeeper, it’s a whole team thing. Our defence is going to be tested.

“We will look to go on the front foot, I think that’s the best way to go against sides like that.

"The best form of defence is attack.”

Lydd topped the Division 1 table at one stage this term and, although their form has dipped of late, they do possess some obvious goal threats.

King said: “We take all cup competitions seriously, we will do that on Wednesday.

“We know all about Lydd. We play them virtually every pre-season.

"They’re a massive goal threat with Kenny Pogue, Ryan Philpot and Brad Baker in their team.

“Their style of football is to go out and attack so, if we don’t get ourselves right, it will be a tough game.

“I’m sure they’ll be up for it but we will make sure we’re fully focused.”

Deal, who drew 1-1 at Bearsted last Tuesday with Alfie Foster netting, went 2-0 ahead against Stansfeld inside 20 minutes but ultimately came up short.

“We’re disappointed,” reflected King.

“Obviously, to be 2-0 up after 20 minutes and lose the game sort of sums up how things are going in the league.

“It wasn’t an awful performance, we did a lot right, but our Achilles heel of giving sloppy goals away came back to bite us. I don’t think it was a fair result, I don’t think we deserved to lose.

“But we will stick together, we’re just having one of those frustrating spells.

“I would not say it was complacency. They have scored from two very good crosses and a set-piece - so, effectively, three crosses into our box. We haven’t dealt with them well enough.

“We’re not having the rub of the green much at the minute, I don’t remember teams hitting the post or the bar much against us.

“We had a good chance at 2-2 that we should have taken. Things are just not running for us.

"We are, obviously, working on little things we can improve on but it’s difficult with the amount of games that we have had. But that’s non-league football.

"We don’t have expected goals and stuff like that at our level but, if we did, I think it would show we should be winning more games than we are.”

Defender Ollie Gray has played in their last two matches as part of a dual-registration agreement with Hythe.

“Ollie played on Tuesday and Saturday, there’s an agreement with Steve Watt at Hythe,” King said.

“They didn’t have a match midweek which is why he played for us. Then Steve was good enough to let us have him on Saturday.

“I don’t know what the situation will be going forward but he’s someone we will be keen to have if he wasn’t needed there.”

Despite the defeat, the fifth-placed Hoops, who are at Sutton Athletic this Saturday, are only six points adrift of second-placed Stansfeld - who they have two games in hand on.

King said: “No one can seem to put a run of results together.

“There were some surprising results on Saturday - Phoenix losing, Erith Town losing and ourselves. No one can string four, five or six results together.

“There’s a long way to go. There’s still 25 games to go, lots of twists and turns. We will do what we always do, which is worry about ourselves.

“Hopefully, in the long run, we will pick up enough results and points.”