Deal Town manager Darren Anslow says he needs to find “a leader” for his new young team.

Defeats in both of Town’s opening two matches in the Southern Counties East League, 2-0 at Croydon on Saturday and 4-1 at home to Rochester United on Tuesday, have left Anslow with plenty of thinking to do ahead of this Saturday’s FA Cup extra preliminary round tie at home to Phoenix Sports.

And Town’s new boss admitted: “We started okay against Rochester but then, when we conceded a goal, everybody went into their shell a little bit and our heads went down, which isn’t a good sign.

“That’s the time when you need a leader, someone who is prepared to stand up and be counted when the going gets tough, but I don’t know where he is going to come from because I haven’t got any money.”

The Deal defence also looked vulnerable to the high ball against a Rochester side who had also lost their opening match, and Anslow admitted: “I thought we conceded some really cheap goals (against Rochester). We weren’t strong enough physically and we are missing a big centre-half.”

The winners of this Saturday’s FA Cup tie will receive £1,500, which would help Anslow to find the leader he is looking for, but with their Barnehurst-based opponents having won both their opening league games it could turn into another disappointing afternoon for Deal fans, who Anslow says will have to show some patience.

He said: “To be honest, I would rather be working with the team who were here last season, which is what I expected when I arrived, because it would have made my job a lot easier. But, for various reasons, most of that team are no longer here, which is not my fault.

“And the reality is that you can build a new team quickly if you have the money but we haven’t, and so we are going to have down the route of moulding a group of young boys, which is going to take time and people are going to have to be patient.”

Anslow is hoping that Andy Miller will able to feature on Saturday after the winger missed the opening two games through injury.