Steve King reckons Deal’s match this weekend is the sort of game they need to win in order to have a successful season.

King’s Hoops return to Isthmian South East matters for the first time since mid-September when they host fellow newly-promoted side Eastbourne Town on Saturday.

While Deal responded to a three-match losing streak with a Velocity Cup win over Hythe, their priority is to establish themselves in the league, having not earned a point since last month’s 3-2 victory at East Grinstead.

Deal manager King said: “They’re going to be a really tough opponent.

"But they’re the sort of side where I’d classify them as being within the group of games that we need to try and win.

"When we played the Margates, the Ramsgates and the Ashfords, with the big budgets and the experienced sides, they’re the bracket of games that you’re hoping to win.

“We know, facing the fellow promoted sides and those who came in the bottom five or six last year, they’re the sides that we need to be looking to take points off.

“With us being at home on Saturday, having lost our last home league game, we need to try and put that right.”

The eighth-placed Hoops find themselves in the middle echelons of the early Isthmian South East table but have played more league fixtures than most.

“Our priority at the minute is making sure we stay in this division,” King said. “We have had a decent start in that respect but we want to get to 35 and 40 points as soon as we possibly can.

“Erith & Belvedere came up last year, Phoenix Sports came up last year, Beckenham hadn’t long been up, and those three sides were in the bottom echelons of the league [at the end of last term].

“With four teams getting relegated this year, our first priority is to get ourselves safe.

“Hopefully, once we have done that, we can reassess and set some targets from there.”

Defender Matty Holness has joined on an initial one-month loan from neighbours Dover, the 18-year-old putting in a man-of-the-match performance in last Tuesday’s 2-0 Velocity Cup home win over Hythe.

King revealed: “We have tracked Matty for a little while.

"We knew he was available from Dover and he just adds another body into our defensive options.

“I think he’s certainly going to be useful for us over the next month and then we’ll see what happens after that.”

A goal by Ife Oni, playing in midfield, and left-back Jack Penny’s strike - direct from a corner - ensured the Hoops beat the Cannons.

“We needed to get a result,” admitted King. “We, obviously, were really frustrated after the Beckenham game.

"We looked afterwards and it’s the first time that we have lost three consecutive games in four-and-a-half years since before Covid.”

The Hoops were 6-1 victors at home to Sittingbourne in the Kent Senior Cup on Tuesday.

Midfielder Billy Munday bagged a second-half treble after goals from Oni, Aaron Millbank and Alex Smith in the first period.